Love Is Shell
by MsMarvelDuckie
Summary: When the Turtles rescue a young woman one night during a routine pizza-run, little do any of them realize how it will change their lives- especially one "party-dude" by the name of Michelangelo. Love comes in many forms, and sometimes strikes when we least expect it. Mikey is about to discover that maybe, just maybe, even a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle can find love...
1. Chapter 1

Love is Shell

Ch. 1: A Strange Encounter

I suppose I should start at the beginning. That sounds odd, but really, where else does one start? I'm not sure how they found me, but I guess I ought to be glad they did. Especially since it changed the course of my life forever. And for the better- at least I like to think so.  
It was one of those late December evenings, right after Christmas. The 27th, to be specific. I was walking home in a foot of snow from my part-time job at Channel 6, and since it was cold and very late at night, I wanted to get home as soon as possible. I never did like New York at night.  
I was just passing a dark alley when suddenly, out of the shadows, three big- and quite f rankly, ugly- men came at me. The biggest one grabbed me, and holding me down on the frozen ground, began tearing at my clothes, while the other two pawed through my purse. They all leered darkly, and I tried to scream even while he was unzipping his own patched jeans. Just as he had managed to yank mine down, a shadowy hand tapped the ugly brute on the shoulder.  
"Excuse me, but don't you think there are better ways to get a date?" A rather young-sounding male voice said. In fact, he sounded like he had not yet even left puberty behind.  
"What's it to ya?" Answered the thug, getting up. He tossed me toward his companions, and all three stared into the darkness looking for the interloper.  
"I don't think it would be wise to try to take us on," remarked another voice, somewhat higher. What was this, I wondered- a rescue by the acne patrol? Then again, who was I to complain?  
"Yeah, it would be like- real dumb." The third speaker's voice was deeper, and reminded me of some surfer beach-bum. Okay, scratch that, I thought- the California acne patrol. Were these guys really serious? He also sounded much closer, though I still could see no more than my would-be attackers.  
Then I felt a strong hand pulling me away from the nearest thug, with a grunt from the brute that told me he had just received a punch in the gut. I quickly got my clothes back into proper place, and moved over to the nearest wall, still straining to see my saviors.  
Meanwhile, my attackers were running off like they had just seen ghosts, which wasn't too far from the truth. But of course, I still did not know that. However, I was about to find out.  
Finally, I called out into the shadows, hoping that my rescuers were not actually ghosts after all. I might have wished they WERE a few seconds later, if I had known.… "I- I'd like to thank you for helping me," I said, finally regaining some composure. "But where are you? I can't see a thing!"  
"That's the idea," said someone else. This voice was new, and sounded a bit sarcastic. Four? Just how many of them WERE there?  
"By the way, who are you?" I asked, curious. I noticed there had been no real answer to my first question.  
"Just some concerned citizens," answered the one who had spoken first. "And who are you?"  
"Uh, my name is Orlene," I answered, wondering why they were being so cagey. Were these guys hiding something? "Orlene McCann. Pleased to meet you?" I said uncertainly.  
"Sure, nice to meet you too," replied the one with the highest voice. Definitely teen-agers, I decided.  
Then the one who had pulled me from the goons stepped into a patch of light. It was enough to make me have a heart attack! Suddenly, as it dawned on me what these four guys were, I fainted...

I woke several hours later- at least it seemed that way- in a strange place. I was lying on a rather tattered old couch in a large room, with solid brick walls. There were no windows anywhere, but there was a sturdy steel door along one side of the room, and a grate in the ceiling. The door was partially open; the sound of dripping water came from somewhere beyond. And that smell... I looked around the room, and saw a huge pipeline that had been blocked off leading from one part of the room.  
"I must be in the sewers!" I said to myself in surprise, realizing where the stench was coming from. I gaped at the room, taking in the mostly bare walls, the cold, damp air, and the second-hand- or was it third- furniture.  
"Like, no duh, man," said a voice from behind me. I whirled around and came face-to-face with the owner of said voice. I screamed. What else could I do? He was short- not much more than five feet, surely- bald, and GREEN. I jumped up onto the rickety coffee table, but soon realized that it made a poor sanctuary, then made a dash for the door- only to see another of the freakish-looking creatures standing there. I know it might seem like harsh words to use, but what else would you call them? They stood upright like human beings, but they had round heads with beak-like mouths and no semblance of a nose, only three thick digits, and large shells on their backs. In fact, they looked like...  
"You- you're t-t-turtles!" I stammered out, as the realization hit me all over again. I gulped, and backed away from the door. This was too much weirdness. The second one stared at me almost curiously, but said nothing.

"Yup, so we are!" The one who had spoken confirmed in a cheerful tone. He sounded like the mellow surfer-type defender from the alley. My rescuers were turtles?! I gaped, unable to comprehend what was happening. How was this even possible?!  
"Boy, we're looking at a real mind here," I glanced toward the door, and saw yet another turtle, this one with an oddly sarcastic expression. A fourth followed him in, and I sank back down on the old sofa, having become convinced that it was either a dream or some strange alternate reality. Or maybe I'd hit my head and was hallucinating. Clearly, I had lost my mind.  
"Michelangelo, Raphael! Be quiet. You are frightening the poor child." A new voice barked out in an authorative tone, immediately drawing the attention of all four of the bizarre talking reptiles.

"Hai, Sensei," the two who had spoken replied, snapping to attention and bowing toward the newcomer with hands together in what seemed a formal show of respect. I slowly turned to look at the last one to enter, and almost wished I hadn't.  
It was a huge rat, and by that I mean a GIANT rat, almost as tall as the four turtles. And why was he wearing a kimono? The insane thought came unbidden to mind. He sat down on a recliner near the couch, and I was suddenly aware that all of them were staring at me. As if I was the strange one.  
At last, I managed a weak, "Wh- who are you?" This was rating about as high as an alien invasion on my freak-o-meter.  
"I am called Splinter. These are my sons. We live here, under the city, and I have trained them as ninja. Please, introduce yourselves, my sons." The rat replied. He sounded a little old, for he had that sort of wise quality to his tone that only old people ever have.  
"I am Leonardo," said one who had entered last, stepping forward to give a polite bow. I recognized his voice from the alley encounter. He wore a blue mask over his eyes, and I briefly wondered why a turtle would need a mask, but didn't ask.  
"I'm Donatello," another said with a warm smile, coming up beside his fellow turtle. His mask was purple, and his voice was higher. Younger, maybe? Then again, who could tell?  
The third one simply leaned casually against a wall, and gave a half-assed salute. "Yo, Raphael's the name," he said. I decided he must be the one with the attitude, and was proven right when his discourteous remark earned him a glare from the rat. He was in red. I was starting to notice a pattern of sorts.  
Then the one I'd seen first came forward, and gave me a grin as he introduced himself. "Uh, I'm Michelangelo, but you can call me Mikey. Everyone else does," he said, and winked at me. I wondered what it meant, but shelved the question for later. He wore orange, and he struck me as the laid-back one from before. I wondered why they were all named after painters, but decided it really didn't matter.  
"Now you know who we are; and who might you be?" The rat asked in a polite and curious tone. Then the one named Leonardo spoke up.  
"Her name's Orlene, Master Splinter. She mentioned it last night. That is, before SOMEONE blew our cover by letting himself be seen!" He glared at the one in orange, and got a sheepish cringe in response. He seemed to be the one in charge, taking the initiative as if he was the leader.  
"Sorry, dude, I didn't know she could see me!" The accused replied guiltily.  
"Excuse, me, but I CAN speak for myself, you know," I interrupted, irritated. They were talking as if I wasn't even in the room, which was highly annoying.  
"Uh, sorry," apologized Leonardo. The others mumbled apologies, looking at the blue-masked turtle as if for direction. He definitely seemed to be the alpha of the group.  
"I'm really grateful to you all for saving me," I said after a moment, realizing it might be a bad idea to annoy these- what exactly WERE they, anyway? "Oh, and I'm pleased to meet you," I continued. Under my breath, I added, "I think." Only the rat seemed to catch the last part, for he smiled and chuckled softly to himself.  
"You know, I think she should stay here for a while, Master," said the one called Donatello. "She probably shouldn't be alone right now, and it's safer down here," he continued.  
"Perhaps you are right, my son," replied the rat. Splinter, I corrected myself mentally. Then I realized I was giving names to hallucinations, and decided I really HAD lost my mind.  
"N- No! Oh, no- there's no need for me to stay!" I protested, jumping up, even though it made me slightly dizzy. Had I hit my head during the attack after all? Or was I just dreaming all of this? "I- I wouldn't want to be a burden on anyone. Besides, I- I have to go home and feed my cat!" Okay, so I was just frantically searching for an excuse to leave. ANY excuse. This was all just too much!  
"Hmm, maybe she's right," said Leonardo. Was it a bad sign that I was already learning their names? I wondered. I was even starting to get used to the smell. "I mean, what if she has a job? She might get fired for not going," he went on. "Maybe we should just take her home."  
"Typical, Leo- always thinking responsibly." Chided the one in red. Raphael- that was it. What was his problem, anyway? I wondered. He seemed to have an antagonistic streak a mile wide.  
"Yeah, guess I wasn't thinking," said Donatello with a shrug.  
"Heh, THAT'S a switch," Raphael joked with a smirk. He was definitely the snarky one of the bunch. Which left the other one- Mikey, he had called himself- who had been strangely quiet.  
But the talk had reminded me of a very important detail- they had said I'd been there all night! "That reminds me, what time is it?" I asked worriedly. Speaking of jobs...  
"Um, a little after ten," Michelangelo said, looking at his watch. Why would a turtle need a watch? Okay, this was REALLY weird. For that matter, why didn't they wear any clothes? Didn't they ever get cold in winter? Not to mention the issue of decency... On second thought, best not to even think about that.  
"Oh, no! I should have been at the station hours ago! April is probably wondering what happened to me, and my boss is going to KILL me!" I exclaimed in a panic. I had only been an intern at the news station for a few weeks, and now I was sure to be fired. I searched around frantically for my cell phone, but didn't see it. For that matter, what had happened to my purse? "Anyone seen my purse? I have to call the station!" I asked, desperate.  
"Station?" "Did you say April?" "Is that station like, Grand Central, or like, CNN?" "Hey Donnie, where did you put it? We brought it here, but Donatello had it last." Four voices started talking at once; it was confusing, to say the least. I latched onto the statement from the one named Leonardo, who had at least mentioned my purse.  
"Where is it?" I asked, turning to the one in purple. He pointed over to a small table in a corner, and wonder of wonders, there it sat. I dashed over and began pawing through it for my phone. It wasn't there.  
"You didn't see a cell phone last night, did you?" I asked, glancing from one to another. Four little green men all frowned sadly and shook their heads. I had just about decided they were Martians. They HAD to be, to look like that, didn't they? Little green turtle-men from Mars... A new thought occurred that perhaps I'd taken a harder hit than I'd thought, and was now in some Twilight Zone dream world. Or New Jersey- I'd heard some pretty strange people lived there...  
"Did you mean April O'Neil? The reporter?" The one named Leonardo prompted, looking at me expectantly.  
"Well- yes, why?" I asked, wondering how they had heard of her. Did turtles watch the news? Well, color me amazed. I would have pegged them as fans of badly-dubbed Japanese B-movies. Godzilla or Rodan, maybe.  
"Do you know her?" Raphael suddenly perked up, staring at me strangely. In fact, they all had incredulously astonished looks, like maybe I was the Second Coming.  
I nodded, not quite sure what to say. "Yeah, she's sort of my mentor while I'm doing my internship," I said uncertainly, wondering why they were suddenly so interested in a news reporter. Then again, for all I knew, they might just have some sort of fan-boy crush on her. Which would be weird, but who was I to judge?  
"Huh. Small world, eh guys?" Raphael snorted, smirking again. I was starting to think that was his default expression. "She's a friend of ours. Funny, but she never mentioned you," He continued.  
I stared back at him skeptically. "Yeah, and I'm personal friends with the Pope," I retorted, matching his usual tone. His eyes narrowed for a moment, realizing that he had just been mocked, but his return comment was cut off by the one named Leonardo.  
"No, it's true. We've known her for a couple of years now. Why don't you ask her sometime?" The others all nodded in assent, and I was left wondering how in Hades name she could know about four giant talking turtles living in the sewers and never tell anyone. Then again, considering how crazy it sounded, I certainly didn't want to tell anyone!  
"Well, I'm pretty sure I'd have remembered if she'd mentioned you guys," I said, looking around the room at the four. And then there was the rat. He was still sitting there, listening to the conversation, but had said nothing. I glanced over at those beady eyes watching me with keen intellect, those whiskers twitching at me curiously, and suppressed a shudder.  
"Miss O'Neil has agreed to keep our existence a secret from the outside world out of gratitude. My sons have saved her life many times when her work put her into danger." The rat said it so matter-of-factly that I knew it was the truth. Besides, he seemed like the no-nonsense type, unlike the room's four reptilian occupants.  
I sat down, feeling depressed now that I had lost my cell. Now I had no way to call work and explain my absence- not that I COULD explain any of this- and probably no job. "Well, this is just peachy," I muttered. "I'm down in a sewer with a bunch of carnival side-show attractions with no phone to call the real world or even snap a photo to prove it happened!"  
Then I felt eyes on me, and it wasn't just the rat. Splinter, I reminded myself again, though why I felt the need to memorize their names was anyone's guess. I looked around, and realized that one of them had been strangely silent during the last few minutes. The one in orange- Michelangelo, or Mikey as he had called himself- was leaning on the arm of the sofa, with a sketchpad in one hand, and a pencil in the other, scratching away and glancing at me every few seconds. Inquisitiveness won out over uncertainty, and I scooted closer to see what he was doing, craning my neck to look.  
"What is that?" I asked, curious.  
"It's nothin' much. Just doodling. What do ya' think?" He shrugged and smiled shyly, and turned it for me to look. It was a sketch of me sitting on the couch, but it was anything but a doodle. I was genuinely surprised to discover that he was as good as any professional artist I'd ever seen.  
"You pay a lot of attention to detail," I said appreciatively, gazing thoughtfully at the work for a moment. "You did this in just a few minutes? I like the shadows there, and how you even included the tears in the pattern on the sofa. The edges are a little fuzzy- was that intentional?"  
"Whoa, dudette! I just asked for an opinion, not an art review! Can't a guy get a straight answer?" He seemed slightly frustrated, or maybe nervous. Maybe he had never actually met someone who appreciated his talent before.  
"Well," I protested, "you asked for my opinion and you got it. I think it's very good." He practically beamed at that, and somehow I felt better for having made him happy. I decided that this chilled would-be surfer-dude might have more to him than was apparent at first glance. Little did I know...  
After a bit of discussion, it was decided that I should remain there for the rest of the day. Fortunately, my new acquaintances had their own phone- I had to wonder why a bunch of giant turtles would need one, and who would they talk to?- and they even had the number for Channel Six, which lent an odd credence to their claim of knowing April. I still had a hard time believing that they were friends of my mentor, but I couldn't exactly refute the possibility, either. I told my boss that I'd lost my phone on the way to the doctor after getting sick, and though Mr. Pennington yelled a bit, I somehow managed to keep my job. Then I called April and told her to meet me after work, because I had a BIG surprise for her.  
I spent the next few hours getting to know my new friends. After the initial shock, I discovered that, appearances aside, they were actually fairly normal- at least if one can call five-foot humanoid reptiles normal. I learned that they had once been ordinary pet shop turtles, dropped into the sewer by accident and exposed to a radioactive mutagenic goop. And I'd thought MY childhood sucked... Turns out, Splinter was once the beloved pet of a ninja Master, and had watched him practice his art until the fateful day his owner had been killed, and he had been left homeless to fend for himself. After ending up in the sewers, doused by the same green ooze that had transformed his four "sons", he too had undergone a strange and miraculous change. I decided then and there that my first major report once I got my break would be about the appalling state of New York's sanitation system.  
I met April several hours later, in the subway station on 33rd street, not far from my apartment. "Hi, April! Sorry I missed work today, but you'll never believe what happened to me!" I said, strolling toward the tunnel.  
"So what's the big surprise you were talking about?" She asked, following me to the end of the platform. She looked a little confused when I started to slide along the narrow ledge beside the tracks.  
"Come on, and I'll show you!" I said, motioning her to follow. She looked around curiously, but finally did so. When we'd gone far enough from the platform, and came to a small maintenance junction, I called out cautiously. "Hey guys, you can come out now!"  
Almost as if by magic, four shapes came out of the shadows, revealing the four mutant terrapins. "Hi, April! Bet you didn't expect to see US!" Michelangelo said with a laugh. All four were grinning ear to ear. Or they would have been, if they'd had ears.  
"Guys?! What are YOU doing here?!" She exclaimed, astonished.  
"Oh, we rescued Orlene here last night while we were going out for pizza. She got jumped by some thugs on her way home. We heard a scream and came running. That's when we found her. Then Mikey had to go and show himself, and she fainted, so we had to take her to the lair." Leonardo explained, glaring at his brother.  
I did a double-take at his mention of pizza. For some reason I hadn't considered what they might eat. "Pizza? You eat pizza?!" I asked incredulous.  
"Sure, doesn't everybody?" Raphael replied, puzzled.  
I gave him a confused look, and shrugged. "Well, I just thought maybe you guys ate lettuce or something. That reminds me, I'm starving! What do you boys have to eat?'  
"Pizza! What else?!" April and the four turtles said in unison, laughing.  
"Ask a stupid question," I remarked wryly, rolling my eyes. They just snickered, and we all headed back to their lair.  
We spent the rest of the night back in their underground home. By now, I was starting to ignore the smell, which really wasn't so bad. They lived in a part of the sewer that had been closed off from use for years; apparently the city had decided that repairing the section of pipes and tunnels was too expensive, and had instead elected to block it off from the rest.  
I was surprised to discover that they were quite the "party animals", though I suppose I shouldn't have been. We ate pizza, played video games and charades, listened to music, joked around, and danced until late into the night. Ever the patient and understanding teacher and parent, Splinter had gone off to meditate alone after a simple dinner of rice and sushi, leaving the rest of us to enjoy the evening. Michelangelo turned out to be quite the dancer, and did a few impressions as well. I had never had so much fun in my life! Even April got in on the fun, and we laughed, talked, and danced until the wee hours, when we all just fell asleep wherever we happened to flop down.  
Thus ended my first day of knowing those wild and crazy dudes. I was only a year older than Leonardo, who was the oldest at eighteen, the others being a half-year younger. As strange as it seemed, I no longer even thought of them as monsters or freaks; in spite of their unusual origins, they were like any other ordinary teens, having fun and enjoying life like anyone else. So what if they were green, cold-blooded, and had no hair? They cracked jokes, razzed each other, and had their favorite movies and songs, just like teens everywhere. I felt comfortable with them, strange as that might seem. Like I'd known them for years. Even then, I knew it was the beginning of something special.


	2. Chapter 2

The Morning After

I woke the next morning with a kink in my neck, trying to remember where I was. Then I looked around, and it all came flooding back to me. I was curled up on the couch in the turtles' lair, but they were gone. By now, I had mostly gotten used to the scent of eau de' sewage, and even the relative coldness of the place. I didn't even think it was all that strange that I felt comfortable in such peculiar surroundings. I did, however, wonder why I was alone.

"Where are they?" I said to myself, a habit I've picked up over the years from spending most of my childhood entertaining myself in my room alone. Come to think of it, April was gone too. And I knew Splinter was still in his room, since the door was closed and I could hear Japanese flute music playing softly. A reminder of his former home, apparently. "Where the devil IS everyone?" I exclaimed in consternation.

As if in answer, there came a sound from outside the door, as of several feet splashing through water. Worried that it might be some sanitation maintenance worker about to stumble upon my new friends' home, I looked around quickly, and found one of Leo's katana and stood with it raised above my head, just behind the door as it swung open. I was just about to bring it down to scare the "intruder", when I stopped short. I had just come face-to-face with a very startled Michelangelo.

"Oops! Sorry guys, I thought someone might have found this place," I apologized. Michelangelo just stood there, with a wide-eyed stare of surprise.

"That's alright," Raphael snorted, stepping around his speechless brother. "We've done that to April a few times, too. Sometimes I think she's lucky we haven't turned her into a human pincushion!"

"I heard that, Raph!" April chided, coming in behind him. I just shook my head and laughed, handing the sword back to Leo as he entered. Donatello was the last one in, his nose buried in some sort of technical manual. They all dispersed to their own separate diversions, with Leo and Raphael going over to sit on the sofa and watch some cartoons, while Donnie, as they affectionately called him, started tinkering with an old radio. I looked around for Mikey, only to find him scribbling furiously on his sketch pad again. I wandered over to see what it was this time. It was me again, this time with Leo's katana coming down.

"Making a record of my follies?" I asked jokingly.

"Nah, you just make a good subject," he said, grinning. "You've got great lines!"

I almost did a double-take at that. Had he just been flirting? I shook the thought aside, and instead asked the question which had been on my mind since waking. "Where were you all, anyway?"

"We went out for breakfast," Donatello said around a pencil between his teeth.

"Why didn't someone wake me up?" I asked, as I suddenly realized I was hungry. My stomach growled in agreement. "And where did you get breakfast? You four DO kind of stand out, no offense."

"Eh, none taken," Leo said from in front of the television. "We got doughnuts. We sent April in for 'em, so it's all good. Anyway, you looked so peaceful, we decided to let you sleep. Don't worry, we brought some back for you." He nudged Raph, who pulled a paper sack from his belt and tossed it to me.

April fell onto the recliner with a loud sigh. "Thank goodness I have today off. Vernon's been a bigger pain than usual lately!" It was no secret around the news station that she and Vernon Thompson were rivals for the best scoops, and he was the type to take any advantage he could get. April despised him for his occasionally unscrupulous methods, not to mention his constant preening.

"Lucky you," I said, digging into the bag of pastries. Somehow, the turtles had managed to get my favorite doughnuts- frosted blueberry, and chocolate-covered éclairs. I suspected April was the source of that intel. "I volunteered for doggie-bath duty at the animal shelter today. I do NOT relish spending the rest of the day smelling like wet dog! And on a Saturday, too!" It was a good cause, but I usually spent my time there working with the homeless cats, playing with them, giving medication to the ones that needed it, and just giving them attention. I had a soft spot for small furry things.

"What's wrong with helping your fellow creatures?" Asked Leo, puzzled. "Don't you like animals?"

"Sure, why else would I go volunteer there? I'm just not thrilled with the prospect of SMELLING like them! Some of those dogs are not exactly squeaky clean and April-fresh!" I sniggered, wrinkling my nose. "Then again, I guess it's no worse than smelling like a sewer."

"Was that a not-so-subtle dig?" Raph shot back, his eyes narrowed slightly.  
I sniggered, with a mouth full of sweet, frosted blueberry goodness, and gave him an exaggerated, innocent shrug. When I swallowed it, I chuckled and said, "Well, you gotta admit, it's not exactly spring-time fresh down here. How do you guys stand it? I'd have to buy stock in Febreeze and Lysol to live here! Which reminds me, I should probably get home and take a quick shower. Somehow I don't think I could explain the eau de' sewer scent to the folks at the shelter."  
April piped up then, and stretched. "Orlene, when do you have to be there? I'd be happy to drop you off at your place. I've got some errands to run anyway." She was like that- always doing things for her friends. It was one of the things I admired about her. She wasn't like some of the other journalists I'd met, stuck-up and ruthless, like Vernon. A little pushy at times, maybe, but that was just part of the job. I had learned a lot from her.  
"Thanks! I've still got a couple of hours. I don't have to be there 'til noon." I said, yawning. I finished off the rest of the doughnuts, and for the next couple of hours, we just hung out with the boys. It was kind of fun hearing their stories about the things they had done, like Mikey getting shrunk or having his favorite superhero come to life from a comic book, or Raph's would-be career as a comedian, or having his mind get switched with a cab driver's. Donnie talked about meeting an alien, and the time he had cloned himself- which had apparently gone terribly wrong- and his ill-fated attempt to get a college degree. Even Leo had some strange stories to tell. His brothers had once tried to give him a new personality when they decided he was getting too bossy; and there was Lotus, a female ninja he had met and had feelings for- that part surprised me, but I thought it best not to ask the obvious question of how a human and a turtle could have any sort of relationship- and his encounter with a fake UFO in a small upstate town.  
Compared to them, my life had seemed spectacularly dull. That is, until I told them about witnessing the murder of my parents two years earlier. That certainly got their attention. It had happened while I was still in high school; I'd come home early one day after getting sick, and found the door to our townhouse open. That alone was enough to rouse my suspicions, so I had slipped in quietly, only to hear voices in the living room- someone was threatening my parents, about some government project they were working on. I peeked inside, and saw the entire place was trashed, with my folks tied to two of the chairs from the dining room. There was some weirdo in a metal helmet and cape, with spiked armor on his arms, hands, and shoulders standing over them. They refused to tell him what he wanted, and just like that, he had swiped his metal claws across their throats. I just turned and ran out of the house, and hid behind a dumpster between two buildings across the street until the cops had arrived more than an hour later. But I had not forgotten that tall, menacing figure in the spiked suit- or his voice.  
"Wait a sec! The guy you described sounds like Shredder!" Leo exclaimed, sitting up suddenly.  
"Who?" I asked, baffled. Somehow I had a mental image of a human cheese grater.  
"He's only our worst enemy," replied Leo sourly. "He used to be a rival of Master Splinter's owner. They were both members of an ancient ninja clan until Shre- er, Uruku Saki- that's his real name- was disgraced for attempting to assassinate their Grandmaster. But he's hated us and Master Splinter for years, because of all the times we've stopped his schemes to take over the city."  
"Ya got THAT right," Raph chimed in, shaking a fist. "Man, I'd love to get my hands on that creep."  
Just then, there was a news flash on the television, about a theft at a major chemical factory in Queens. Someone had made off with an experimental hydrogen fuel, that was supposed to be powerful enough to drive a car to the moon and back on a single tank. Almost like magic, all four mutants shot up and dashed for their weapons.  
"What's going on?" I asked, confused. Even April was on her feet, as they all piled toward the door.  
"I'll bet old tin-grin had something to do with this," Leo said, looking angry. The others all nodded agreement, and I had a distinctly uneasy feeling, seeing the dark expressions on their faces. I started to get an idea of why the thugs who had attacked me had run off in terror. When they got angry, these guys were truly SCARY!  
"I'm coming with you guys," April said, and no one argued. "I'm not going to let Vern scoop me on this! No way am I letting him keep me from getting another story!" She was fuming. Then again, as many times as he had used underhanded tactics to sneak a news story out from under her, I didn't blame her. He made news reporters look bad. And he was pretty sleazy, too. I'd learned that the hard way...  
"Too late, April," quipped Raph. "He already did!" She just tossed him a dirty look, and he backed down.  
I don't know why, but I decided right then that I had to find out for myself if the man they called Shredder really WAS behind the theft. When I'd told the police what I'd seen, they had thought I was crazy, or that I'd been too distraught to remember clearly. But I knew what I'd seen that day. And I wasn't going to just stand by while my new friends took on a cold-blooded killer.  
"I'm going too," I said suddenly, right behind Donnie. As one, four green heads swiveled to stare at me.  
"I'm not sure that's a good idea," Leo said. "You'd just be in the way. We can't get in there to check it out and keep an eye on you, too."  
"Aw, come on, Leo! Lighten up!" Mikey protested, I was a little surprised to hear him defending me. But he stared his brother down boldly. "She can stay with April, and he's probably long gone, so it's not like she'd be in danger. And it'll give her a chance to see how we work," he said, shrugging.  
"He's right," said Donatello. "What harm could it do?" I waited, and at last, the unofficial leader of the group sighed and nodded.  
"Okay, fine. Just stay with April, and if we find anything, we'll let you know."  
"Thanks!" I said, and soundly gave all four a quick peck on their beaks. Leo shook his head in annoyance, and I could almost swear Mikey was blushing. "You won't regret this," I continued, as we trudged through the tunnel outside their lair, splashing through the occasional puddles of stagnant, murky water. I tried hard not to think about what might be in that water, as we made our way through an access tunnel that ended in a ladder below a large grate that opened into an abandoned garage. Parked inside was an old VW van- or at least it had been, in its previous life. What it was now was more akin to a mobile tracking station and high-tech lab. Where and how Donatello- I knew it had been him without being told- had managed to cobble together the equipment was a question I wasn't sure I wanted to know the answer to, but I was impressed all the same.

We drove to the factory, parking the conspicuous van on a side street and making our way to the site on foot. As expected, the police and the media were already there, including the Channel Six news crew. I wondered how the four boys were going to get inside to investigate, but a soft scraping sound high above on the roof made me look up, just in time to see four shapes stealthily creeping along on top of the factory. That answers that, I thought, as April and I went over to the news van. She gave Vern a stern lecture about journalistic ethics, while I helped the camera-operator with his equipment.

A short time later, April had used her press credentials to get us both inside, presumably to film the scene and interview some of the chemical engineers who had worked on the formula. Once inside, I kept getting an odd feeling of eyes watching me, and it wasn't long before I spotted a familiar shadow inside a large vent near the ceiling. I glanced around, and discovered three more all around the factory's lab, close enough to hear April's questions to the engineers, but still well-hidden. I belatedly remembered Splinter's words about training them as ninjas, and was amazed at how easily they had managed to sneak in.

By the time April and I got back to the van, they were already there waiting for us. I was surprised at how fast they could move- which was doubly impressive if one considered the typical speed of a turtle. Then again, the hare had underestimated the tortoise, too…

"Well, guys, what do you think? You heard what those chemists had to say," April said, when they had dropped down right in front of us as we approached the vehicle. I stifled a startled yelp, but she acted as if it was a normal occurrence.

"Y'know, I'm beginning to wonder if tin-grin stole that fuel after all," said Donnie, frowning.

Leo nodded. "He's right, guys. There should have been evidence that he was there- it was too clean." He agreed.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "Didn't you say he was a ninja Master?" I was a little disappointed that we hadn't seen anything; I'd been hoping to get a lead on the man who had murdered my family. Two years, and nothing. The police had never found the killer, and the case sat cold, leaving me with too many unanswered questions.

"If it was him, there should have been a hole nearby from one of those transport modules of his, or at least some sign of entry. Maybe this was one of those inside things?" Donatello suggested.

I sighed and wandered back toward the news van, when something caught my eye. I noticed some odd scratches cut into a power pole at various intervals, consisting of sets of three deep marks- like claws. I looked up, and saw a small scrap of something fluttering from a line-man's climbing spikes about halfway to the top. Coincidentally, the pole was close to the roof of the factory, just where I'd seen the four shell-backs tiptoeing earlier. It suddenly dawned on me that this might be exactly what they were looking for, and I raced back to where they'd parked the garish yellow van.

"Hey, guys! I think I found something!" I said, excited. "Could he have gotten in the same way you did?"

"Shred-head? Doesn't seem like his style. He's usually a lot more dramatic. He likes to make an entrance." Raph said, shaking his head. "Why do you ask?"

I quickly told them what I'd found, including the odd scrap of purple cloth. All four began to look uneasy when I mentioned the scratches, and finally nodded grimly. When I explained that the pole was right next to the roof, Leo growled angrily, and Raph muttered a curse that would have put an inner-city gangster to shame.

"Son of a…!" Leo snarled. "It was right under our noses the whole time! How could we miss that?!"

"Calm down, _kemosabe_. It's not your fault," Mikey said, consolingly. "You said it yourself, Raph- it's not his usual MO. How were we supposed to know?"

"Well, at least now we know he WAS here," Donnie mused, ever the optimist.

Then something happened that I never expected- a voice interrupted from the doorway of a small warehouse across the street. "Correction, wretched reptiles- I am STILL here! Did you really think you could stop me? You're too late!" He laughed coldly. That voice chilled my blood, for I recognized it as the voice of the man I'd heard two years before. It was dark, evil, and full of venom, the voice of a psychopath and a killer, of that I had no doubt.

We all spun around to face him, and I once again saw the face of my parents' murderer. There was no mistaking that frightening helmet with the mask covering most of his face, the curved blades on his armor, even the long cape. He oozed evil from every pore, and his eyes were hard, cold, and sinister. In that moment, I knew that this was a man who was capable of anything.

"It's HIM," I whispered, shuddering at the sound of his dark laughter. I started to back away; then I felt something solid behind me, and a reassuring weight rested on my shoulder. I glanced down to see a familiar green hand wearing a watch, and realized that it was Michelangelo. I felt safer just knowing he was there, somehow, though I couldn't explain why. Maybe it was knowing that he had protected me once before, or maybe I just needed that reminder that I wasn't alone this time. Whatever it was, it gave me courage.

"So, that's the big bad guy, huh?" I finally asked sarcastically, trying to sound more confident than I felt.

"Yeah, how'd you guess?" Raph replied in a casual tone. I noticed that he and the others had all drawn their weapons, and it occurred to me to wonder if they ALWAYS carried them.

"Oh, I dunno, maybe it was the helmet that gave him way?" I shot back. Raph snickered.

"Come on, guys- let's do this," Leo said calmly, and stepped boldly toward their foe. His brothers all nodded agreement, and I suddenly found myself wishing I had a weapon too, though what I would do with one was anyone's guess.

"You can't win, chrome-dome! You might as well give up now!" Leo called out as he charged at the walking meat-cutter. Shredder- and I still couldn't believe he actually called himself that- gave a yell and pulled a short metal rod with a sharp point at each end, which he twisted and snapped out; it grew longer, until it became a double-ended spear.

"I will enjoy destroying you, shell-back!" He sneered under the mask, and then all talk ceased as the battle began. I had known my new friends were expert martial-artists, and that they were skilled in the use of their chosen weapons, but until that moment, seeing them in action, I had not realized just what that meant. Unlike their ordinary cousins, these turtles were anything but slow. No, they moved like lightning.

Still, fast and good as they were, they could not seem to find a hole in their enemy's defenses. He kicked Donatello backward with ease, sending him flying into the side of the van, even while he blocked Raph's sais and ducked under Michelangelo's whirling nunchaku. Leo slashed out with his blades, only to be flipped onto the ground by their opponent's spear. He rolled away before Shredder could bring it down to skewer him, while Donnie leapt back into the fray with a flying kick.

I watched the battle, fascinated and amazed. How could one man so effortlessly counter every move of four opponents at once? I remembered what Leonardo had said about him being a rival for their own teacher's master, and wondered if perhaps it was because they had been taught by the same Sensei. It was obvious that he knew all their moves. I moved closer to get a better view of the fight, searching for the one weakness in his defense. It occurred to me that what was needed was an element of chaos, an opponent whose moves he did not know. Okay, so I had almost no training in any kind of martial arts- except for a couple of quickie classes in women's self defense that had obviously not worked too well, considering how I'd gotten into this situation- but I had to try, right? Odd as it seemed, these boys were my friends now, and I owed them for coming to my rescue that night. At least that's what I kept telling myself, even as another part of me whispered that I was doing something REALLY stupid.  
I looked around for anything I could use as a weapon, and the best I could come up with was a piece of wood from a shipping pallet with the nails still attached, lying near a dumpster. Shrugging, I picked it up and charged into the fray from behind the murderous slimeball. I had assumed that I could take him by surprise by attacking at his back where he could not see me. Big mistake. I had not counted on the skill of my opponent- specifically, the fact that ninjas are trained to fight blind, and to detect enemies no matter what direction they attack from. I found out the hard way.  
I was shocked when my swing with the board missed completely, simply because he'd heard me coming- damned high heels, I thought, too late- and spun aside, grabbing the board and twisting it right out of my hands. He threw it at Leo, who had attempted to use the distraction of my swing to find an opening. Leo ducked his head into his shell to avoid the flying missile; I gaped, astonished that such a thing was even possible, until I remembered what he was. The next instant, I was grabbed by the wrist, and the so-called "Shredder" dragged me back toward the warehouse he had hidden in, putting the point of his weapon to my throat.  
"Enough! Drop your weapons, or the girl dies!" He snarled angrily, putting his back to the open door. I tried to pull free, but it was no use. Apparently, those muscles were not just for show, because he felt as strong as an ox! I gulped, knowing he was dead serious, if you'll excuse the pun. I'd seen him do it before, and had no doubt he would kill me too.  
"Dudes, we gotta do something! We can't let him hurt Orlene!" Michelangelo said worriedly. Somewhere in the back of my mind, it occurred to me that he had taken the role of my personal guardian, and I wondered why. At the moment, however, there were bigger things to worry about.  
"Sheesh, is it just me, or is that gal a catastrophe waiting to happen?" Raph joked grimly. I glared at him, and filed the comment away for a later chastising.  
Finally, Leo grimaced and sighed. "Guys, I don't think we have a choice. He won't hesitate to do it." He gave their nemesis a sullen nod and tossed his swords to the ground. "Alright, Shredder- you win THIS round. Now LET. HER. GO." His voice had gone deadly cold, and I realized there was more to him than the calm, cool-headed leader. Somewhere in there was a dark, ruthless beast waiting to be unleashed.  
The others did the same, and the man holding me chuckled darkly. "Haha, fools! Your compassion is your weakness! NEVER give away your advantage over an enemy for the sake of protecting a useless female! THAT leads to defeat." He slowly dragged me, snarling and squirming, through the door into the warehouse. I looked around, wondering how he intended to escape when the door was guarded by four very angry reptilian warriors. I spat, cursed, and fought, but could not break free. Leo and the others stalked through the door after us, but kept their distance.  
I glanced behind me, towards the back wall of the mostly empty warehouse, and saw a startling sight there. A huge, gleaming metal tube-like object with an open hatch in one side and an enormous drill on the front sat partially poking from an even larger hole in the floor. It had what looked like tank treads underneath, and was apparently some sort of subterranean vehicle. I realized that this was his escape route, and that he meant to take me along for the ride. Right about that time, there came a loud noise from outside, that sounded ominously like a motor revving in high gear. The turtles all looked startled, and turned around just in time to see their own van come crashing through the door and wall of the warehouse- straight at Shredder!  
He let out a surprised curse, and threw me down as he dived out of the way. I let out an unladylike curse at him, but it went unnoticed. I heard a clink as something hit the floor, and suddenly spotted a small metal and glass vial rolling my way. I grinned as I snatched it up, glad that at least something was finally going my way. Meanwhile, the van screeched to a halt, and April poked her head out the driver's side window.  
"Hey, guys! Thought you could use some help!" She waved to them, and all four green heroes broke out in laughter.  
"Alright April!" "You GO, girl!" "YES!" "Come on, lets GET him!" The last was from Leo, as they bull-rushed their arch-foe all at once. Seeing that his only advantage was gone, the creep turned tail and dove into the waiting machine, slamming the hatch closed behind him. A moment later, it whirred to life, and swiftly slipped back down into the tunnel it had made.  
"Damn!" Shouted Raph as it disappeared. "He got away- AGAIN!"  
"Yeah, AND he made off with that hydrogen fuel!" Donnie growled angrily. "You realize what this means?! He has enough power now to bring the Technodrome to the surface and take over the city!"  
"I wouldn't bet on that, guys," I said, getting up and dusting myself off. "That creep didn't get way with ANYTHING. And what the heck is a Technodrome, anyway?" I glanced at them for an explanation. They all blinked, and exchanged confused looks.  
"What do you mean he didn't get way with anything?" Asked Leo.  
"It's what he calls the giant battle-station tank he has hidden underground beneath the Hudson Bay. It's got enough firepower to level half the city. Only problem is it's only got enough power for life-support. At least until he uses that new fuel." Donatello replied sourly.  
I shook my head, laughing. "Oh, you mean THIS?!" I asked, holding up the vial. Five pairs of eyes stared at me in astonishment.  
"Where- HOW did you get that?!" Leo exclaimed. The others just exchanged excited glances.  
"He dropped it when the cavalry showed up and he dove away from April's driving. I just picked it up." I said smugly, shrugging.  
"STILL think she's a catastrophe waiting to happen?" Mikey shot at Raph, grinning. Once again, he was coming to my defense, it seemed, and I decided I would definitely have to ask him about that later.  
For now, though, there was still the matter of the fuel to deal with. We decided to sneak it back into the lab where it could be found later, figuring that it was better to let the scientists assume it had merely been misplaced. A short time later, when all was as it should be, the boys drove me back to my apartment so I could shower and change to go do my volunteer work. As I stepped out of the van, I turned to look at them, wondering if this was the end of my adventure with them.  
"Will I ever see you guys again?" I asked Donnie, shaking his hand. His grip felt cool, but friendly. I belatedly remembered that they were cold-blooded, and felt a little sorry for them living in a cold, damp sewer in the middle of a December freeze. For a moment, I wondered how they could even function at all in the cold, especially without clothes. I usually bundled up in winter, and especially now, with the snow piled nearly two feet high in parts of the city.  
"Indubitably!" Donatello replied, in his usual multisylabic habit.  
"For SURE!" Mikey added, grinning in his typical easy-going manner. His enthusiasm was infectious, I had to admit, and I found myself already starting to miss them.  
I thanked them for everything, and gave them my phone number. Never mind that I would have to buy a new cell phone before anyone could call me. But like many things, it was the thought that counted. I went up to my apartment feeling strangely happy and sad at once, and went about my normal routine. The animal shelter turned out to have called in a professional groomer to bathe the dogs, so I ended up with my favorite duty- caring for the many homeless cats waiting for adoption.  
After that was taken care of, I went out and bought a new phone, and returned home at last to relax and set it up. It was late evening when I heard a thumping on my fifth-floor window. I was curled up with my favorite fluffy throw blanket to watch a movie on cable, and the sound startled me. I tossed off the blanket, and cautiously went to the window. My first thought was that perhaps a pigeon had hit the window; instead, what I found was a shivering five-foot turtle with nothing but a scarf, mittens, and a beanie cap.  
"Mikey?!" I exclaimed, staring at him in confusion. "What are you doing here?" I glanced outside, wondering if anyone had seen him come up the fire-escape.  
"Uh, hi. C-can I c-c-come in? It's fr-freezing out here!" He said through chattering teeth. I nodded, and he was in through the window in a flash. He might be many things, but slow was NOT one of them.  
"Okay, so what's going on? I wasn't expecting to see any of you so soon." I was baffled to say the least.  
"Well, we were all talkin', and we thought maybe you should have a way to get hold of us- y'know, in case you ever need anything. Even Master Splinter agreed that you should be considered an honorary turtle. Anyway, Donnie made this for you. We all have one, even April! It's a communicator, y'know, sort of like on Star Trek. Donnie's a big sci-fi geek, and he builds all sorts of cool stuff." He shrugged as he handed me the small round object- cleverly made to resemble a turtle shell- and I flipped it open to reveal a small screen and several buttons. It was like a video pocket pager, from what I could tell. I glanced at it, and back at Michelangelo. He was shuffling nervously, rambling in his speech, and it occurred to me that he felt uncomfortable being in my apartment. Or was it just around ME?  
"Thanks, Mikey," I said, not quite knowing what else to say.  
"Ah, don't mention it," he replied, staring down at the floor. I wasn't sure how to take this odd gift, but I was glad they had thought me worthy of it all the same. Part of me understood that this was a sign of friendship and trust, but still I wondered why they had felt it necessary. And of all of them, why had he been the one to bring it? Surely Donatello would have been the logical choice, since he'd made it, and could explain how to use it better than anyone else could.  
I asked the obvious question of how to use it, so he gave me a quick demonstration, showing me what the buttons were for, and how to switch between an open link with all of the others, or to talk to just one. Then he mumbled something about having to go back, and I nodded in silence as he turned to leave. Then he was gone, and I was left staring out the open window, wondering why he had seemed so reluctant to go. I didn't see my new friends again for several days, but even then, somehow I knew I hadn't seen the last of those wild and crazy party "animals"...


	3. Chapter 3

Interlude- Mikey's Side

I started keeping this journal a couple of years ago to write down thoughts, dreams, and other stuff, like what happens during the day. Mostly, it's been kind of empty. It was Leo's idea, as if THAT'S a surprise. But the thing is, ever since we met Orlene, I've started writing in it all the time. Dunno why, I guess she just makes me want to be more intellectual or somethin'. Anyway, I guess since no one will ever see this, it's okay to admit that I've sort of had a thing for her ever since that first night.

So, like, we were going out for a pizza- there's this place a few blocks from the lair where they think we're just a bunch of cos-players in costume, so they don't give us too many funny looks when we walk in. The costume idea was from yours truly, by the way. Sometimes I DO come up with good ideas. See, I'm not as dumb as everyone thinks- I just don't think people should take life so seriously all the time. Mostly, I'd just rather chill and have fun while I'm here. Thinking about serious stuff usually just gets me down; who needs THAT?

Anyway, we heard a scream, and, duh, this IS New York. It was a no-brainer that someone was getting mugged. So we dashed off to the rescue. Master Splinter calls it being Good Samaritans. Me, I just call it doing the right thing, like the guys in my favorite comics. "With great power…" or, uh, something like that. And sure enough, we found some creeps who were up to something, and what they were about to do wasn't very nice. I don't get mad a lot, but THAT is one thing that really gets me steamed. Maybe it's just seeing creeps who take for granted things that WE'LL never have, and use it to hurt or take advantage of someone else. It's just sick- and not in the "Sick moves, man!" kind of way….

First thing I noticed was that the girl was our age, and real pretty. From the street light at the end of the alley, I saw long dark blonde hair, jeans that hugged her legs in all the right places, and under the blouse those thugs had torn open, um….. The first thing I thought of was Steve Martin's voice in my head saying, "let me fluff your pillows". Okay, so I like old comedy movies. When you can't go out and get a job, you spend a lot of time watching cable 'cause there's not much else to do. Plus, I get bored a LOT. Donnie says I have ADHD. Maybe he's right. I was the one closest to her when we came in on those jerks, so I didn't even think about it; I just grabbed her arm and pulled her away from those goons- and gave the creep who had her a right jab below the belt, just for principals' sake. Then I smelled her perfume. She smelled really nice, like vanilla and cherries. Bein' that close, I couldn't help noticing it. I still haven't told the others yet, but that was the reason I ended up blowin' our cover in the first place. I didn't KNOW I was doin' it, but I stepped closer and leaned in to get a good sniff, and well, that was it.

Then she fainted. Oops. TOTAL bummer. I caught her before she hit the ground, and, well- I dunno. I can't explain what that was like, feeling something so soft and warm right there next to me. It was nice. We don't talk about it, but we all try to be the one to "save" April whenever she's in trouble, just for a chance to get that close to a female. Sometimes I think she knows it, too. She doesn't seem to mind, though. Heck, Irma sure doesn't! But she's gaga over guys anyway, and would probably say yes to ANYONE who asked.

"Great, Mikey- JUST great." Leo growled. I could tell he was ticked. No big surprise; he's ALWAYS gripin' at me.

"Yeah, way to go, GENIOUS!" Raph added. Nope, no sarcasm there.

"Hey- it's not MY fault! I tripped on some trash in the snow!" I snapped back at them. I didn't want to tell 'em I was sniffin' her perfume. "So, uh, what do we do now? We can't just LEAVE her here. Those goons might come back. AND, it's like 12 degrees out here. She'll freeze if we don't take her somewhere safe." I was hopin' that might make my bros forget about bein' mad at me. It mostly worked.

"Y'know, Mikey's got a point. We don't even know where she lives. Come to think of it, that accent sounded like she might be a tourist. We can't take her to a hospital or to the cops, that's for sure. Someone might see us, or she might tell people about us." As usual, Donnie was the one to think of the practical stuff. Made me wish I'd thought of it first, though, 'cause it made a good excuse to take her back with us.

"Yeah! What he said!" I added. Okay, so I'm not a brainiac like Donatello- sue me. Anyway, I figured it couldn't hurt to back up my bro. The girl was slumped up next to me, and I was really startin' to enjoy the way it felt. It was totally distracting- in a good way.

So that settled it, and after some more bickering- mostly from Leo, like THAT'S news- we took her back to the lair with us. I volunteered to carry the babe, y'know, since it was uh, my fault for scarin' her. Lucky for me, the guys agreed. At least it gave me an excuse for holdin' onto her a little longer, which was kind of what I wanted anyway. Not to mention, every time I looked down to check on her, I got a great view of bodacious gazangas. Er, not that I'm a perv or anything, but can I help it if her blouse kept comin' open? Hey, just 'cause we live like hermits doesn't mean we're blind!

Anyway, the next morning she finally came around, and after the shock wore off and we managed to convince her that we weren't monsters or aliens- yeah, like who ever heard of alien ninjas, anyway?- we found out she was actually friends with April! Whoa, talk about kismet, huh? I mean, what are the odds? But it's all cool. Turns out, Orlene really appreciated my art, and she's fun to hang with, too. Not to mention a TOTAL babe. Not that it matters, or anything. But a guy can appreciate a pretty girl, right? Especially one who has great moves, and isn't afraid to face off with old chrome-dome. And who doesn't mind hanging out in a damp, smelly sewer. Always a plus in a relationship.

So like, she stayed with us for the next couple of days, and even went with us while we scoped out a crime scene. I always knew old chrome-for-brains was a real creep, but sometimes we forget just how nasty he can be, 'cause we found out he killed her folks a couple of years ago, and then he showed up while we were investigating, and he tried to bump HER off, too. April saved the day- for a change- and everything turned out okay, even though tin-face got away, as USUAL. Anyway, after that fight, we got together and decided to make Orlene an honorary member of the family, and Donnie even made a communicator just for her.

I volunteered to take it to her, just so I could see her again for a little while, without the guys around. The worst thing about havin' three brothers is tryin' to do stuff without them gettin' in your personal business- or without them KNOWIN' about it, for that matter. Don't get me wrong- I love my bros. They're my best buds! They're family, and I'd give them the shell off my back, but sometimes I wish they'd just butt out of my business. Especially when it involves a girl. If there's one thing I know, it's that you can't make a play when there's competition around. And like, how many other babes out there would even give any of us the time of day, much LESS treat us like real people? I may not always act real smart, but I'm no dummy, either.

See, I've seen what it's like to be like everybody else. After that time I ate those mutagenic cookies, I got to be human for a day- and I realized how much we're really missin' out on. Things like going on dates, bein' able to walk around without people freaking out, or just doin' regular guy stuff. We never got to go to a high school dance, or graduate, or have parties, or go on class trips, or just be kids! All we ever do is sneak around in the dark and fight creeps like Tin-face and his goons, or mob guys, or street thugs. All we do is fight, and train, and for WHAT?! When do we get to have a LIFE?!

I never told them this, but one of the reasons I ate those cookies even after Donatello warned us what was in 'em, was to see what it might be like to have a normal life, 'cause I knew I'd never have another chance. Sometimes the others are way too paranoid and cautious to enjoy life. Not me. I'd rather take a chance and do something crazy and dangerous then spend my whole life wondering what I might've missed. I still don't regret it, even if I almost got blown to bits. It was worth it just to walk around in the sun. And not have to hide all the time. Meetin' Orlene just reminded me of how good it felt. Kinda made me wish we had some more of those cookies.

Anyway, we didn't see her again for a week; then we went to visit with April a few days after New Year's, and decided to invite Orlene over for pizza and a movie. April didn't tell her we were there, 'cause we wanted to surprise her. When she walked in, I couldn't help starin'. I'd almost forgotten what a babe she was, and it didn't hurt that she was breathin' hard from going up eight flights of stairs. The elevator in April's building was out, so she'd had to take the stairs. Raph noticed me starin', and elbowed me; I looked away, feelin' embarrassed for ogling, but I kept gettin' distracted all night, rememberin' the view I'd had that first night. It's a good thing we're not built like other guys, or it would've been WAY obvious what I was thinkin' about. Sometimes I'm actually GLAD we're not human- otherwise things could get embarrassing REAL fast.

We had a lot of fun, and it was pretty late when we finally headed back down to the sewer-den for some z's. But we promised to see her again soon, and even helped her back down to the ground floor OUR way- we took the fire escape, and Leo carried her on his back. She laughed the whole way down, and I kept thinkin' that I wished it was me she was hangin' onto. Man, I was SO jealous. I guess you could say I was GREEN with envy. Okay, bad joke. Point is, I started wondering if a girl could ever be interested in one of us as more than friends. Well, besides Lotus, but she's more Leo's type. Too formal and into honor and duty for my taste. I like a girl who knows how to have fun.

Long story short, things really changed after that. We stopped a jewelry store robbery the next day- without bein' seen, of course- and April covered the story on the Channel Six news. We were watching from the roof across the street, and I spotted HER there, helping the camera guy with his equipment. Just for fun I picked up a piece of a busted brick and tossed it down next to her. She looked up, and I waved. She glanced around to make sure no one was watching, and waved back at me, with a smile so bright it could melt the North Pole. Not sure, but I think maybe she digs me. At least I hope so.

She started hangin' with us a lot after that; any time April came down for a visit, she came too, and sometimes just by herself. She even went with us a few days later when we checked out another lab break-in. Old Shred-head was up to no good, like always. We got into another fight- big surprise- but this time he had those mutant morons Rocksteady and Bebop with him. Man, I really hate those two. They give mutants a bad name.

April was there to cover the break-in, and Orlene took over the camera when Vernon ran off screaming like a baby during the battle. What a wimp! We mopped the floor with those losers, like always, but Shred-man got away with some high-tech parts from the lab, which was a real bummer. But I guess you just can't win 'em all. After the fight, we went home while April and Orlene went back to the station to file the news story.

Anyway, it's almost time for morning practice, so I guess I better come back to this later. There's a lot more to tell, and not all of it's good. There's some stuff I have a hard time writin' about, because of- well, mostly because that sort of crap is WAY un-cool. Don't get me wrong, there have been some good times too; but I ended up doin' some things I shouldn't have, and I feel bad about that. But that's for later, I guess.


	4. Chapter 4

In Training

The next time I saw them was a week later, a few days after New Years. April had called me after work to come over to her apartment for dinner and a movie- she's not only my mentor, but also one of my few friends here in the city. That's one reason I respect her so much. Not only is she a great reporter, but a good friend, too! Naturally, I agreed, and went right over. The elevator was out of order, which is apparently a common problem in New York. I ended up taking the stairs, which might be good for keeping in shape, but it's hell on the legs when you're already tired from working all day.

When I got there, the boys all jumped out from behind the couch, yelling "Surprise!" I was too busy trying to catch my breath from the eight-floor hike to say anything at first, though I did notice Mikey had a sort of glassy-eyed look on his face. I don't know why, but he gets that look a lot. It's like he forgets how to talk or something. One of these days, I'll have to ask Splinter if he's ever been hit on the head really hard.

We had a fun evening watching old sci-fi movies and stuffing ourselves on pizza and cheese puffs. I started to think that if I kept hanging around with those guys, I'd have to join a gym just to keep my figure. I honestly don't know how they can eat like that and still stay in shape- unless it's all those hours they spend practicing their skills. Maybe they've got the right idea….

By the time we called it a night, it was pretty late. They offered to escort me down before heading home themselves; without realizing what they had in mind, I agreed, and was stunned when Leo picked me up and hefted me onto his back. He was already out the window before I could even protest. The others followed, though Michelangelo gave his brother an angry glare that made me wonder what had ticked him off.

"You guys are NUTS!" I exclaimed, as Leo hop-scotched his way down the fire-escape, carrying me with ease. I hung on tight, laughing at the absurdity of my position.

"Nah, we just know how to travel in style!" Raph exclaimed as he swung down from one landing to another, like an oversized green monkey. Donatello slid down the railing of the metal stairs, whipping around at each landing to whiz down the next set. Mikey took an even more shocking route, and simply slipped his nunchaku between the building's wall and a drainage pipe, using the chain to rappel his way down. I shook my head, deciding that in spite of what they claimed, they most definitely WERE nuts. Or adrenaline junkies, at the least.

When we hit the ground, I slipped off Leo's back and laughed. "You know," I said, grinning, "For somebody supposedly practicing the arts of stealth and secrecy, you four sure do make a lot of noise. I think only about HALF the neighborhood heard that racket."

Leo looked around cautiously, checking windows to be sure no one had witnessed our exit. "Yeah, I guess that WAS a little conspicuous," He agreed. "But the coast is clear- so far, anyway. Let's try not to make so much noise next time, guys."

"No problemo, mi amigo!" Mikey laughed, dropping down beside him. His reply earned him a glare from his older brother.

We said good night, and I went home in the cold January snow alone, but with the distinct feeling that someone was watching me. It made the long walk to the subway station feel safer, knowing that even if I couldn't see them, my new friends were looking out for me. Like my own herd of hard-shelled guardian angels.

The next day, there was a robbery at a jewelry store that ended with the thieves mysteriously busted and tied up. Strangely, no one had even seen the Good Samaritans who had stopped the gang, even though it had been broad daylight. The incident aroused my suspicions when April told me about it; odds were pretty good that those do-gooder boys in green had struck another blow for law and order. April covered the story for Channel Six, and I went along as part of the news crew- field-reporting was part of my internship, and it was why I'd gotten into journalism to begin with.

Sure enough, while I was helping Danny, the camera boy- and incidentally, Mr. Pennington's son- with the equipment, a small chunk of broken brick fell from above, skipping across the pavement just a few feet away to land near my feet. I glanced up, and spotted four familiar shapes up on a rooftop across the street. One of them- I think it was Mikey- waved at me. After a quick check to make sure no one saw, I grinned up at them and waved back.

After that, it seemed like they started showing up in my life a lot more frequently. Whenever April went down sewer-side for a visit, she would invite me along, or they would call me up on my new com-unit to see if I wanted to hang out. And even though I wasn't crazy about slogging through dark, smelly, dripping sewer tunnels, I truly enjoyed the time I spent with them. They were like the family I had lost- only more green.

A few days after that, I went with them to another lab break-in, this time at a high-tech robotics company. April had contacted them on her shell-cell- the guys jokingly call them Turtle-coms, but I like the shell-cell idea better- late that evening to tell them that Techno-Dyne Research had reported a security breach. They boys had invited me over for a slasher-flick marathon, but as soon as they heard the news, we all high-tailed it to the lab.

Sure enough, when we got there, another of those big underground transports was poking halfway out of a hole in the ground in a construction site not far from Techno-Dyne's facility. To make matters worse, the front entrance of the building was nothing but a pile of rubble. Someone had used some kind of explosives to blast their way in. We got there just ahead of the police and the news crews, and the guys slipped inside to find out if their hunch was right. As it turned out, Shredder was still there- only this time, he had two thugs with him that looked like a couple of creatures from a bad sci-fi movie. One was some sort of mutant rhino in camo pants and a wife-beater shirt, the other a warthog with a purple Mohawk and old torn jeans. That's when I started to wonder when my life had turned into an episode of the Twilight Zone. Or was it The Outer Limits? Whatever.

There followed a brief but furious battle, in which the two goons opened fire on the turtles with weapons that could have come right out of Star Wars. Leonardo had warned me against getting involved, and in light of my previous encounter, I wisely heeded his advice and stayed back near the ragged hole that used to be the doors. While I was watching from outside, the police arrived and began blocking off the area, along with the crew from Channel Six- with Vernon Thompson, the slimiest snake ever to step in front of a camera, reporting. I was forced to move back from the area by an officer named Detective Greenley; luckily, with all the gunfire coming from inside, the cops were reluctant to move any closer themselves, which at least kept them from seeing my ninja-esque friends.

Unfortunately, the fight soon spilled out into the street, with blaster-fire flying everywhere as Shredder and his two flunkies- along with a dozen uniformed soldiers which I soon learned were actually robots- kept the boys on the defensive. The "Foot soldiers", as Shredder called them, came up in a second transporter during the battle, while the four brothers were busy trying to avoid the shots from their enemies, and began to open fire as they rushed inside. The transporter came up in the middle of the street- right in front of five NYPD patrol cars and the crews of every major news station in the city. In one fell swoop, the battle had just become the biggest story on the nine o'clock news.

Of course, we all should have known it would happen eventually. Even in a city as big and crazy as New York, something as bizarre as four humanoid, talking turtles kung-fu fighting a guy dressed like a human cheese-grater and a bunch of thugs in pajamas with ray guns was bound to attract attention. When the boys turned to face the new threat, Shredder took the chance to throw a smoke bomb at them, and used the distraction as cover to attack them in the chaos of smoke and blaster fire, while the two freaks grabbed boxes of stolen parts and dashed out to load them into their transport.

I could just make out the shapes inside the demolished lab; then Donnie came flying backwards and slammed shell-first into an old yellow VW Bug. Two of the black-and-purple clad soldiers leapt out after him, but he flipped back to his feet and jabbed his bo into one after the other, knocking them back. Then he looked around and realized he was fully exposed to view; he looked horrified, but was forced to stand his ground when the two swiveled their weapons on him. He dodged three shots, then slammed his staff into the head of one with brutal force, knocking it right off- and revealing it as a robot- then punched a hole in the second. He muttered a somewhat un-heroic expletive, and started to dash back inside, only to have Raph thrown into him by their nemesis, knocking them both back outside.

Raph looked at all the cops and media crews- not to mention at least two dozen bystanders- and sighed. "Well, so much for 'the Art of Invisibility'! Splinter's NOT gonna' like this!" He exclaimed in disgust. I was inclined to agree.

Right about then, Vernon tried to get closer to the action with a mini-cam to scoop the other reporters on the biggest story of the year with some exclusive close-up footage. April had arrived on the scene, and she tried to warn him off, but as usual, his desire for better ratings overrode good sense. One of the robots opened fire on the two brothers stranded in the open, and a stray shot ricocheted off of a car mirror, and singed his over-gelled hair. He screamed like a little girl and dropped the camera, diving behind a newspaper box. Not one to let an opportunity to show him up pass me by, I picked up the camera and moved in to focus on the theft being carried out right in front of half the city by three lunatic refugees from a comic-convention.

Long story short, the guys ended up busting up all but two of the robot warriors, but not before that rat- no offense to Splinter- Shredder and his two hench-mutants got away with some very valuable high-tech parts. Worse, they had been seen, in a BIG way. The secret was out, and even as they ran and jumped into their van and sped off like a bat out of hell, I knew things could only get worse for them now that the world knew they existed.

When it was all over, I went with April to file the report on the break-in, then met back up with our friends at the lair later to decide what to do. On one hand, I felt partly responsible for the sudden exposure, since I'd taken over the camera from Vernon. On the other hand, it had been almost inevitable that someday they would be discovered. Even though April and several others- including Channel Six's own receptionist Irma, who was one of April's best friends as well as living in her building- had learned of their secret over the years, so far, no one had ever exposed them to discovery by the public. We all agreed that it was best the world never know. But now the world DID know, and the only thing to do was try to keep them from becoming subjects for overcurious scientists, or worse, exhibits in some freak show.

"What I don't get is what they're doing with all that stuff," I mused while we discussed the incident afterwards. "What does he want with all the high-tech fuel and equipment he's been after?"

"Well, it's for that Technodrome of his under the harbor. It's got all sorts of nasty weapons and defenses, but we sort of trashed it a while back, so now it's low on power and in serious need of repairs. The dude is tryin' to get it back online so he can get to the surface and take over the city." Mikey answered. I glanced over at Donatello, about to ask if he was serious, and he nodded.

"Yeah, that's basically it in a nutshell," he confirmed.

"Nice guy," I said, shaking my head. Things just got weirder and weirder with these four around.

That's when I first had the idea to help them. I had only known them about two weeks, but fate has a funny way of throwing us a curve ball once in a while. If someone had asked me a year earlier what I thought I'd be doing after the New Year, my answer would have been just trying to get by as a single girl in New York. Never in a million years would I have guessed I'd be involved in a secret war between talking humanoid turtles and a psycho maniac out to take over the city with an army of ninja robots and mutant street thugs. But I'd never imagined I'd witness my own family being murdered by that same lunatic, either. I still wanted to see the man responsible brought to justice, and I think that's why I felt so connected to those four. After all, the fight was personal for all of us.

I guess it was that second battle that convinced me to join them in their fight against Shredder and his mutant thugs and robot army. For one thing, I wanted to make him pay for killing my parents. More importantly, I knew that unless he was stopped, more innocent people would be hurt. If he ever managed to get his mobile fortress fully powered and repaired, the entire city would be in danger. I couldn't let that happen.

I hadn't known the four brothers long, but already I trusted and cared about them like family. Even Splinter was like an old, beloved uncle or grandfather. And I was starting to think that Michelangelo, especially, felt the same way. I still didn't grasp the real reason for his attachment, but since he has always been the most friendly, out-going, and trusting of the four, I chalked it up to his naturally gregarious personality. He has always been the first to jump to a friend's aid, the first to try to cheer someone up, or the first to offer a total stranger his friendship. While Raph might be the cynical comedian, and Leo, the calm, rational leader, or Don the logical tech-wizard, Mikey was the one whose easy-going, almost innocent demeanor won friends and made him a natural morale-booster.

Being the youngest of the four, the others had always treated him like the goofy kid brother he often seemed to be, but I had already noticed a deeper side to all of them that wasn't readily apparent. Like Raph's hot temper and hard, gruff exterior masking his love for his brothers. He's the one who lets his emotions get out of control, the unpredictable, rash wild card. Yet when the going gets tough, there's no one better to have at your back, and no one who is more loyal. Or the burden that being both the oldest and the leader seems to put on Leonardo, whose outward maturity and responsibility borders on fanatic, while inside, he just seems to feel lost and uncertain. I can understand that.

Even Donnie has always seemed to feel pressured by the way his siblings looked to him for all the answers when it came to technical or mechanical matters. Whenever something needed repaired, he was the one they went to. He was the one who understood how everything worked- he was the inventor, the chemist, and the computer hacker. In a world driven by progress, he was naturally the most useful member of the group. I think sometimes he just gets tired of the constant demands on his time and skills, though.

And then there's Michelangelo- what can you say about someone who secretly goes out to feed stray animals, or who enjoys sketching, skateboarding, and cooking when he's not busy kicking butt? I've seen him pull off half-pipe moves that would make Tony Hawk look like an amateur, and I gotta admit, he can make a mean omelet! Well, to be honest, they all have their special hobbies outside of the dojo, but none more diverse than his. Comics, movies, music, video games- I guess some people just want to do it all.

Several days later, I got another call from April; she had something important to tell me, and it couldn't wait. Curious to know what she wanted, I went to her place after my weekly volunteer service at the animal shelter. When I got there, she and the boys were all there, yelling "Congratulations!"

"What's going on?" I asked, confused.

"You've been promoted!" April said happily. "I told Mr. Pennington how you took over the camera when Vernon chickened out, and he was impressed. He's decided to give you a full-time job- as my camera operator! Now you'll be out in the field whenever there's a breaking story!"

"Yeah, guess now you'll be able to go on ALL the big scoops," Mikey added.

"Yup, and that means no more spending hours sitting in a dull office editing film, or going on coffee and doughnut runs, or listening to that hack reporter Vernon talk about how great he is," Donatello chuckled. "It's win-win."

This was my big break. Now I'd finally get a chance to prove I could make it in the cut-throat world of television journalism. I turned to April and hugged her happily. "You are wonderful!" I shouted. "And don't worry- I won't let you down. I'm not afraid to get right in the middle of the action to get the scoop." I said, grinning.

"THAT'S the truth," agreed Leo. "You're either one of the bravest humans we've ever met, or the CRAZIEST." The others all laughed in agreement.

"A little of both," I conceded. "I guess you four have sort of rubbed off on me. And speaking of which….." I replied, then paused, uncertain how to continue. There was still something weighing on my mind. Ever since that last battle, I'd been thinking, mostly about the past. Twice in the past month, I'd encountered the man who had killed my family in cold blood, and he was still free and still threatening innocent people. I didn't know how, but I knew someone had to take him down. The police had never truly believed my story, even though it was obvious the murders had something to do with their work. Now that I thought back on it, I remembered that they had been part of a weapon-development project their company had been working on for the government. Something told me that Saki- I still preferred to call him that over the ridiculous moniker he'd given himself- had been after whatever they'd been working on. Maybe he still was.

What was bothering me was that until he was in prison or six feet under, I'd never have any closure, and never be able to completely move on. I'd always worry that he might come back. And if he had known who I was, and that I'd seen him kill them, he very well might. I wasn't certain if what I was considering was even possible, but there was only one way to know. Assuming they would go for the idea, of course. I had my doubts about that. But then, it couldn't hurt to ask, right? The worst that could happen was that they would say no.

"Guys, please don't laugh, but I have something important to ask you," I said; Donnie had popped in a DVD while we were talking, and now we were all about to kick back and celebrate over pizza, ice-cream, and a Star Trek movie marathon. I paused the movie, and took a deep breath before coming out with it. As nervous as I was, you'd think I was coming out of the closet.

"What is it, Orlene?" Leo asked. All four turned to stare at me with curious frowns. At least I had their attention. I fidgeted for a moment, then told them what was on my mind. Four jaws dropped; four pairs of eyes bulged. As expected, they weren't thrilled with the idea. Then again, I could understand why. What I was suggesting bordered on insanity or a death-wish.

"Are you CRAZY?!" Leo exclaimed.

"You can't be serious!" Donnie added.

"Man, I KNEW she was gonna' be trouble," muttered Raph.

"Yes, I'm serious, no, I'm NOT crazy, and Raph, I HEARD that. I meant what I said- I want to help you fight him." I sent a brief glare at Raphael, and sat with arms folded, waiting for their answer.

Leo shook his head, and I knew it was going to be tough to convince them. Once he made up his mind, there was almost no changing it. And of course, whatever he decided, the others were likely to follow his lead. Being the oldest sibling has a way of bringing with it a respect that is somewhat akin to hero-worship, because it often comes with more responsibility, freedom, and privilege. As much as they might argue and bicker, when it came down to the important things, they all stood together. Which presented a problem for me, but what can you do?

"Come on, busting Shredder is OUR job! And anyway, how could you help?" Leo argued. Clearly, he was dead set against it from the outset.

"Leo's got a point. It's nuts to want to take him on. Heck, we've been doing it for years, and we STILL can't put him down for good. And WE'RE experts." Raphael added. "What good do you really think you could do?" Ouch. That stung. I wanted to slap him for that remark, but I decided to turn it back on him instead.

"Yeah, and that's worked SO well, hasn't it? Did you ever think that maybe having someone else on your side might help? Tip the balance, even? Not to get nit-picky, but you guys could use all the help you can get. Especially now, after what happened the last time." I really hated to throw that at them, but all's fair…. And I wasn't about to back down.

"But you don't know anything about fighting," Donnie broke in, pointing out the obvious. "What can YOU do? I mean, you're just a-"

I shot up like a rocket from the couch, and gave him my most threatening glare- which probably wasn't all that intimidating, but…. "So help me, if I hear the word 'girl' or 'human' come out of your mouth, Donnie, I'm going to knock you on your shell so fast it'll make your head spin!"

"No, Donatello's right. You don't know the first thing about fighting. You'd just get yourself killed." Leo said, as if that settled it.

"Then let Splinter teach me," I said. "Look, I KNOW I can help. Please, just give me a chance to prove it. Remember, you guys aren't the only ones with a bone to pick with him. I deserve a crack at him, too." I hoped that reminding them of the reason I'd become involved in all of this might sway at least one of them. Of course, there was one who had remained silent, but I hardly noticed. I figured that he would go along with whatever the others decided, if only to avoid being the odd man out.

"I say if she thinks she's up to it, let her!" April chimed in; at last, someone was on my side! I wanted to hug her. Us women had to stick together, after all!

"Are you SURE you want to do this?" Donnie asked, still looking at me skeptically. I could tell he was trying to talk me out of it.

"Yes," I answered simply. "It's my fight as much as it is yours. How many lives has that monster destroyed? How many more people is he going to hurt?"

"I still say it's a bad idea," Raph protested. "I mean, the thought of a female ninja doesn't exactly do a lot for the male ego."

"Oh, come off it Raph!" Donnie retorted. "Our ego isn't what's at stake here. Besides, have you forgotten Lotus?" He reminded his hot-tempered brother. "I don't really see anything wrong with her wanting to fight- I just don't want to see her get hurt, either."

"Aw, chill out, dudes! If she wants to kick some butt with us, I'm down with it!" At least one of them agreed with me. Not surprisingly, it was the one who always seemed to take my side. I was starting to wonder what was up with that.

Leo looked around the room, and saw that the issue was evenly divided. Finally, he sighed, and gave a reluctant shrug. "Well, I suppose we could ask Sensei. But don't get your hopes up- I doubt he'll go for it." He had conceded, or so it seemed, but he still did not appear completely convinced. That seemed to settle the matter for the time being, so we got back down to the business of celebrating. Somehow, though, it didn't quite feel the same. At the end of the night, I went home wondering if I hadn't made a mistake.

They called me back the next day by shell-cell, to say that their sensei wanted to see me. As soon as I left the station, I went straight to the den, feeling cautiously optimistic. If Splinter refused to teach me, at least I would have tried. But I was hopeful that the summons meant he had agreed, or that he was at least open to the notion.

When I got there, I found all five of them waiting for me, the four turtles seated on meditation mats in the training room, watching me silently as I entered. I noticed that they were arranged in order of rank, from Leo seated on the end nearest Splinter's own place, to Mikey at the other, with Raph and Don in the middle. I had learned enough to know that the closest seat to the Master was reserved for the best student, which I suppose made Michelangelo the least proficient- or more likely, knowing him, the least disciplined and serious. Splinter stood before them, walking stick in hand as usual, and motioned for me to join them without a word. That worried me. What did it mean?

I sat down beside Mikey, and waited. At last, the aging rat spoke. "My sons tell me that you wish to learn the Way of Bushido and the arts of the shinobi. Tell me, Miss McCann, why do you seek my teaching?" Hamato Yoshi's one-time companion asked bluntly. Trust a rat to not trust the motives of a human.

This was it, I realized. This was the test that would determine whether I was in or out. "Spl- I mean, Master Splinter, I told them the reason already, but it boils down to this- it's MY fight too. For two years, I've been living in fear that the man who killed my parents would come back, and been ridiculed and dismissed by the police because they didn't believe what I saw. Now I know who and WHAT he is. If he had ever realized I saw him that day, he would have come after ME, too. I want to help put him away for keeps. Until he's gone for good, more people are going to end up like my parents- but NOT if I can do something about it!"

"I see," He replied, whiskers twitching. "Then you seek vengeance?" Nope, no beating around the bush here.

"I won't deny that it's personal, but- no. I want to see him stand trial and locked up for what he's done; and if he ends up executed, so be it. I want to make sure that no one else will have to go through what I did, ever again. I want to see justice done."

Splinter's furry brows furrowed for a moment; at last he nodded as if to himself. "Very well, then- I accept you as a pupil. But know that you must give up much of your time and freedom if you are to study the Way of the Warrior. Do you understand this?"

I nodded, and bowed to him. "Yes, Master Splinter, I understand."

A smile crossed his furry features, and he bowed back. "Good. Then we shall begin…."

I spent the next five hours learning about the Warriors' Code of Bushido, and the history of the ninja. And every day after that, I'd spend an hour each morning and three in the evening with the boys. The first week consisted of little more than study and meditation, as well as reciting the tenets of Bushido. Then Splinter started in on the physical training, and I began to have second thoughts about the wisdom of my choice. I knew it would be tough, but I had never imagined how hard a teacher he would prove to be!

Each night I fell into bed gratefully, exhausted and sore. And each morning I was right back in the den doing chin-ups, push-ups, sits-ups- by the end of every day, I just wanted to THROW up! Then would come hours spent standing on a post on one foot, perfectly still, and always blindfolded, to improve my balance. I wasn't allowed to so much as utter a word during most of those sessions. Other times, I'd be doing it while reciting the litany of the warrior's code until I thought I was going to go postal if I had to do it one more time.

A typical day of training went something like this- I'd been balancing precariously in the crane stance on a narrow steel bar for over an hour- barefoot and blindfolded, as usual- while Leo tested me on the Bushido code. "Again," he said. It was the tenth time I'd gone through the litany. "Who are your parents?"

"I have no parents. I make the heavens and the earth my parents," I answered- again. As much as I liked Leonardo, there were times like this when I thought he was almost as much of a tyrant as his- OUR- Sensei.

"Where is your home?" He continued.

"I have no home. I make the Tan T'ien my home." I said with a bored sigh. "How many times do I have to DO this?" I asked, annoyed.

"Until you know it by heart well enough to recite it in your sleep. We ALL had to go through this. Now FOCUS!" He snapped. I groaned. Clearly, this was far from over. "What is your divine power?"

"I have no divine power. I make honesty my divine power."

"What are your means?"

"I have no means. I make docility my means…." And so it went. I was starting to wonder if I'd made a mistake.

After nearly a month of such torture, I seriously considered giving up. Though Master Splinter seemed pleased with my progress, I wasn't sure if I had what it took. Practicing kattas for days on end or lifting weights and doing gymnastics for hours at a stretch were hardly what I'd had in mind. Then again, I could understand his reasons for working me so hard. Unlike his "sons", I had not been training since childhood, so naturally, I had a LOT of catching up to do. I suppose he simply wanted to make certain I would be strong enough to truly be of help.

And all this was just during my SPARE time. There was still the matter of the promotion and the new responsibilities at Channel Six, assisting April whenever she was out covering a news story. Most of them turned out to be little more than fluff pieces- human interest bites, as they were known- but I enjoyed the new job all the same. Unfortunately, it meant a lot of standing on my feet and lugging around heavy camera equipment, not to mention setting it up, taking it down, following April as she chased down reluctant interviewees, or taking shots for stock footage. It all meant just one thing- between the job and the training, I was near to collapse by the time Valentine's Day rolled around.

And speaking  
of Valentine's Day, I suppose it should be obvious by now that I was VERY single, and likely to stay that way, especially now that I spent most of my free time with a four-and-a-half foot talking rat and his four martial-artist turtle sons. When you spend more time in an abandoned sewer than you do on the city streets, it's hard to meet guys.

Maybe that's why someone decided to leave a Valentine's surprise in my apartment. Of course, it would have been more appreciated if it hadn't come with an unexpected test. I'll have to remember to thank Leonardo for that part someday. It was his idea after all. And yet…I couldn't help being a little flattered by the rest of it.

It started on the 12th, shortly after finishing up a news report on a new paleontological find. I was leaving the Natural History Museum when I felt the ground moving under my feet. Now, New York is not exactly known for earthquakes, and this felt- wrong somehow. For one thing, it was only affecting an area the size of a football field. As far as I know, earthquakes don't come in bite-size. And the fact that it happened to be right across from the Hayden Planetarium was a little suspicious, too. Or maybe after everything I'd seen and learned from the turtles, I was becoming paranoid of strange things going on around me. That couldn't be it, could it?

I looked around frantically to see where the tremors were coming from, and soon found the source- another of those underground transports was bursting up through the ground across the street, in Central Park. Great. So I wasn't being paranoid- it was worse. I was cursed. That was the only explanation why I kept running into that creep!

I ducked behind the nearest car to hide, and dug in my purse for my shell-cell. I knew the four brothers would want to know about this. What I couldn't understand was what their enemy was doing there. As soon as I opened it, I got Donnie on the line.

"Hey, what's up?" He asked. He had a welding mask pushed up on his head; I guessed he must have been in his workshop when he answered.

"You'd better get the others and get over to the planetarium, quick!" I whispered. "One of those underground vehicle things just came up in Central Park right across from here!"

"What?!" He exclaimed. "Are you SURE?!"

"Yeah- I'm looking right at it! The ground started shaking all around me, and then it just busted out of the ground! Get your green butts over here, before something bad happens!" Just then, the hatch opened, and out stepped Shredder and his two pet freaks. And a half-dozen of those robot soldiers. How many of those things did he have? I wondered. More importantly, why were they here, of all places?

"We're on our way- just DON'T do anything 'til we get there!" He hung up, leaving me alone, with only a parked taxi between me and a steel-clad killer.

"'Don't do anything', he says. Yeah, like I'm going to take on a bunch of walking tin-cans and the human can-opener by myself," I muttered. Still…. I had to find out what they were up to. As long as they didn't catch me, it couldn't hurt to keep an eye on them, right?

"Bebop! Rocksteady! Come with me. The Foot soldiers will guard the entrance while we grab the meteorite." Well, at least now I knew what they were after, although I didn't understand why they would want to steal a meteorite. What was so special about a space rock? I crept closer, hoping to learn more. They slammed the doors in, and I heard shots, followed by multiple screams. Great, not only were they stealing a piece of space dirt, now they were threatening innocent civilians, too! I just hoped the guys would get there soon.

A few seconds later, several dozen people came running out of the planetarium looking terrified. I understood the feeling, as I was starting to get a little edgy myself about being within firing range of the blaster-toting robots. They ignored the people coming OUT, but when a police squad car pulled up a few moments later, and the cops got out and headed toward the building, they opened fire and the officers scattered. Fortunately, the robots were not particularly good marksmen, and only winged one of the officers in the arm. They called for back-up, hiding behind their car to keep from being shot at again, and all that was left to do was wait.

It seemed like an eternity passed, and I was starting to get worried, when I heard a soft scraping sound from a storm drain near the car I was using as cover. I glanced over, and saw a green hand waving me over as a voice whispered quietly for my attention.

"Psst! Orlene! What's the 411?" Donnie asked, as I crept over to peer down into the drain slit. Four pairs of eyes looked back at me, and for a moment I was reminded of how freaked I had been on first seeing them. I stifled the gasp of surprise, and gestured for him to keep it down.

"They're still inside the planetarium, and they have six of those robots guarding the entrance. I heard your 'friend' in the tin hat say something about stealing a meteorite. Oh, and there's a squad car parked about a hundred feet to your left, and more on the way. Any questions?" I replied, wondering how they were going to get past the cops and the robo-brigade, much less stop Saki from accomplishing whatever it was he was trying to do.

"Meteorite? What's bucket-head want with a rock?" Mikey asked. He may not be the most brilliant mind, but he has a way of asking the very questions everyone else is thinking, but no one ever bothers to say.

"I dunno, lame-brain! Why don't you just go in there and ASK him?!" Raph said sarcastically, and promptly smacked his youngest sibling on the back of his head. I thought he was being a little harsh, but I held my tongue. Who was I to get in the middle of a sibling squabble?

"OW! Hey, it's a legit question!" Michelangelo protested, rubbing his head.

"Cool it, Raph. He's got a point. What DOES Shredder want a meteorite for?" Leo replied thoughtfully. "And keep your voices down, you two! It's bad enough we've been spotted once- you want to try for a second time?!"

The other two cringed, apparently cowed by the prospect of discovery. "Sorry," they both muttered quietly, as he turned back to me.

"Can you distract the robots and the cops long enough for us to get in there?" He asked. I had a bad feeling that I was about to become a target in a shooting gallery.

"Me? Exactly what am I supposed to do, a strip-tease?!" I replied. I think Raphael may be rubbing off on me. Or maybe it was just the thought of being asked to serve as bait.

"I'D watch," someone muttered. I was pretty sure I knew who said it, and my suspicions were confirmed a moment later when Mikey grunted in pain. I guess an elbow in the side will do that.

"No, just go over to the Foot soldiers, and when they try to stop you from going in, throw these right in front of them and the cops." Leo held up two small round objects through the drain. They were smoke bombs made out of eggs. "We'll use the smoke to hide us while we sneak in."

I took the egg bombs, and nodded. "Okay, but if I get shot at, I'm kicking your butt into the middle of next week when this is over!" Not that I thought I actually could, of course, but a girl's gotta maintain her dignity. I heard a snigger, and wondered which of the others had been laughing behind their leader's back.

Steeling myself to be ready to run like hell, I got up and jogged toward the entrance to the planetarium. Sure enough, the metal guards all advanced toward me, weapons raised. I said a silent prayer to whomever would hear me, and backed away into the street. When I thought they were far enough from the doors, I tossed one of the eggs at the feet of the robots, and threw the other at the squad car with the officers hiding behind it. They shattered, and suddenly the street was full of thick white smoke. I turned tail and ran back the way I'd come, though a rush of almost silent footsteps passing me told me the boys were already on the move.

A few moments later, I heard thumping and clanging sounds from within the cloud of smoke. I could see little, but knew the guys were taking out the opposition in concealment. A round object came flying out of the cloud at me; I dodged aside, and it hit the ground three feet behind where I'd been standing. It bounced twice before rolling to a stop, and I saw that it was the head of one of the robots. Score one for the boys! I grinned at the mental image of what the police would see when the smoke cleared.

That got me thinking- once they were inside, Leo and the others would be preoccupied with Saki and his goons. They were going to need someone to keep an eye out for outside interference, not to mention clearing a path back out again. I was pretty sure that once the cops saw the resistance was gone, they might try to storm the building themselves. That could be bad, if the turtles were still battling their enemy. Someone had to make sure they weren't seen again. And considering that the entire main hall of the Hayden's Rose Center had glass walls except for the brick arches surrounding the lowest level, that was a distinct possibility.

I turned around again, and dashed through the thick smoke and slipped inside the planetarium's entrance. I heard footsteps ahead of me and to the left, somewhere beyond the enormous sphere on twenty-foot support struts that took up most of the center of the main hall. Other, smaller spheres hung around it, in varying sizes and colors, representing the planets- the big one on the struts was the sun, of course. The middle of the first level was a large open space with various displays on large ring-like pedestals. I gaped as I looked around the enormous Rose Center- it was a truly awe-inspiring representation of the scale of our own solar neighborhood. I crept around the edge of the main gallery, and almost tripped over something on the floor as I gazed up at the massive sphere taking up half the room. I glanced down, to find a wounded security guard on the floor. He'd been shot, from the looks of it. I wondered why the others hadn't stopped to help the man, but knowing Leonardo, they had probably gone straight up the middle of the room, so maybe they hadn't seen him. I bound his shoulder as well as I could with a strip of my skirt, and dragged him back outside the doors, before racing back to find the guys. Keeping low and close to the outside walls, I followed the trail of blaster fire, until I heard a shout from Leo up ahead.

"Shredder!" He yelled, and I ducked lower, peering over the side of one of the outer display rings near the east wall. "You just can't leave well enough alone, can you? So what's with the sudden interest in rocks, tin-face?" Leonardo shouted, his blades drawn in readiness. The other three had done likewise, each gripping their chosen weapons in anticipation of the inevitable battle.

"None of your business, filthy reptiles!" He answered with a snarl, and pulled a wicked-looking chain with a curved blade on a short wooden handle on one end, and a weight as the other. I recognized it from my training as a kusari-gama, or chain-sickle. He whipped out the blade at Leo, who blocked the attack with his katana and sent it spinning off to smash into one of the displays. Oops, the city won't be happy about that, I thought. I made a mental note to remind the guys to keep the collateral damage down.

"Rocksteady, Bebop! Don't just stand there- destroy them!" Well, one thing I could say for the man, he had his priorities straight, even if he WAS a complete loon.

"Man, do we HAVE to tango with those two morons AGAIN?!" Raph complained, as the giant rhino-man fired at him with abandon. Raphael flipped and ducked and spun to avoid the shots, before he finally tired of the game and hurled one of his sais straight at the blaster. It plugged the barrel neatly, and the next shot caused the weapon to overload and short out. Unfazed, the rhino henchman charged at him with his head down. Apparently, the mutant had the short temper of his animal side, along with its relative lack of intelligence.

"Ha-haaha, ya' missed me!" Mikey taunted, as he danced nimbly around the other one, kicking and thwapping the Mohawk-sporting mutant warthog with his 'chucks. "Wow, bet that stung! Hey, fugly! When's the last time you took a bath? 'Cause you STINK almost as much as your AIM does!" The ugly brute kept trying to shoot at him, but naturally my wily friend was too quick, and he had moved in too close for the blaster to be of much use. I had to admire his chutzpa. I was also pretty sure that the annoying taunts were part of his fighting style, intended to drive his opponents to make mistakes by making them angry and frustrated. I stifled a giggle at the realization that he treated the battle as a game.

That left Leo and Donnie fighting their greatest enemy. I'd seen him hold his own against the four of them before, and now, it seemed his skills were even more impressive. He took on both brothers at once, seemingly without even breaking a sweat- not that anyone could tell if he was sweating in that armor.

"Stop fooling around and GET THEM!" Shredder snarled at his two flunkeys. He swiped at Leo with one razor-clawed fist and missed, then kicked Donatello in the chin, sending him sprawling back into a model of a space probe.

"Sure thing, boss! We'll smash 'em!" The rhino-guy growled. I rolled my eyes, knowing these idiots probably didn't stand a chance against the well-trained warriors I'd come to know. Even Mikey, who wasn't even taking the fight seriously, could fight better in his sleep than they ever could.

Still, it couldn't hurt to make certain my hard-shelled friends emerged victorious. I'd promised to stay out of the fight, but that didn't mean I was going to ignore an opportunity to do some good if one presented itself. I just had to wait until Saki and his hench-mutants were fully occupied, and I could try to snatch back the stone and hide it. That plan had its drawbacks, of course, namely the aforementioned bad guys. If they happened to catch me stealing their prize, my future might prove distressingly short.

I continued my circuit of the room, until I was behind the three, and looked around for the meteorite. I knew none of them had it on them, or they wouldn't have been able to fight. A big hunk of space rock tends to weigh one down. Then I spotted a large steel case near the mutant warthog. No one was paying attention to it, and one of the darkened side galleries was close by, giving me a nearly perfect place to stash the case. I used the display stands as cover, until I was close enough to grab the case and yank it out of sight. However, dragging it to a safe spot proved more difficult than I'd thought; the thing felt like it weighed a TON!

Raph continued dodging the rhino-mutant's charges, while Michelangelo was busily making a nuisance of himself to the enraged warthog. I couldn't help a chuckle at his unorthodox tactics, but I had to admit that at least with these goons, it seemed to be working- at least until the pig-faced brute managed to land a lucky punch that knocked him off his feet. While he was getting back up, shaking his head from the jarring hit, his opponent tackled him back to the ground, and grabbed him in a grapple that would have cracked ribs on any normal person.

Then Leo missed a block against Saki's lethally sharp claws, and was slashed across his hard chest plates. The metal claws made a sound like nails on a chalkboard, and left a trio of deep scratches on the once-smooth surface. I winced, knowing that the plates were, in fact, part of Leonardo's ribs. The hard plates that had been the bottom half of his shell were actually bones covered by a keratinous outer layer like horn or nails. Growing up in the South, I'd often gone fishing in lakes and ponds where I'd lived, and many times I'd found terrapins crushed on the sides of country roads, their shells cracked open to reveal the ribs and spine fused to the inside. And as tough as they were, my new friends were no different.

Leonardo felt the cuts, and though they weren't deep, his confidence faltered. Not long after I'd met them, I had noticed an old scar; a deep, wide gash ran across the back of his shell, from between his shoulders to the edge, where a small chunk of his shell had been gouged off and was now missing. He had refused to talk about it when I asked, but later Donatello had told me it was from one of their past battles with Saki, when Leo had been stabbed with one of his own swords while defending Mikey, whose legs had been broken during the fight. Leo's spirit had taken a beating in that battle, and now he saw it as a reminder of a past failure. For a moment, I thought he might have lost his resolve, but he backed off, raised his blades into a defensive position, and glared darkly at his opponent.

"He who dings the shell must PAY," he said, in a low, rough tone unlike anything I'd heard from him before. It betrayed a side of him that I'd never seen- a more menacing, take-no-prisoners attitude that seemed more fitting for Raphael than the cooler, more level-headed Leonardo. As close as I'd become to the boys, there were times when I was reminded that they, too, had their darker sides, an animalistic and primal side that lay hidden deep beneath the surface of their human-like personalities. I had an impression that perhaps his pride and vanity had been wounded, and now this fight was a matter of honor. Saki simply laughed, and launched himself at the turtle's leader once more. They came together snarling, their rage and hatred of each other an almost tangible force around them. I felt a shiver run down my spine, and wondered if someone might not survive this fight.

Donnie made a flying kick at Shredder with the butt of his bo aimed for a hard slam at Shredder's ribs, but their villainous foe merely leaned aside, and grabbed the staff and swung the surprised teen around into one of the supports for the giant central sphere. Don slid down it to land on his side on the floor, groaning. Things were going south in a BIG way, and somehow, in spite of the boys' advantage of numbers, the enemy was wearing them down. Now they were in danger of loosing.

When I saw them in trouble, I realized that staying out of the fight was no longer an option. Whether they liked it or not, I was already involved, and it was too late to back out now. Unfortunately, I had neither a weapon nor enough training to do much good in a hand-to-hand fight like the one going on before me. But then I remembered the fallen robots outside, and an idea struck. Okay, so it was hardly an orthodox ninja tactic, but turning an enemy's own tactics against him was only fair, after all!

I dashed back to the front doors again, keeping my head down, and found that the smoke was starting to clear. There wasn't much time left. I could already hear the voices of about a half-dozen more police on the street, though they were still reluctant to move in, unaware that the mechanical gunners were already out of commission. I looked around on the ground for the nearest blaster and grabbed one, then darted back inside before the cops spotted me through the thinning smoke-cloud.

I raced back into the main hall, and paused when I saw Shredder swinging the chain of his weapon at Leo. Twin blades came up to block it, but were entangled and yanked from his hands. Undaunted, he dived into a roll that brought him up close, and swept a leg out to knock his foe down. He was rewarded with a curse from the metal-clad killer, and suddenly their battle had devolved into a fist-fight on the floor. Mikey, meanwhile, was still struggling with his own opponent, who had him pinned down and was slowly squeezing the breath out of Splinter's youngest son. Donnie was busy helping Raph with the other one, so he was on his own. Not for long, I decided, and raised the borrowed blaster.

I fired off a shot- thankfully it wasn't difficult to use- but instead of hitting the hairy freak, I ended up splitting his garish purple Mohawk in two. But the shot distracted him, and his head jerked up in surprise. I decided that I was going to have to work on my aim- I'd been aiming for his head.

"Hey! What the-?" He cried, and turned his attention my way, pulling a small hand-blaster from a holster at his side. That was all it took. Mikey saw his chance, and let loose with a punch from his now-free left arm that knocked the mutant backwards nearly ten feet. The goon landed with a thud, and looked around in a daze.

"Yo, thanks babe! I owe ya' one!" He grinned, as though he hadn't just been about to be snapped in half by the brute. I gave him a mock salute and spun around to aim at my next target- the rhino-man trading punches with Raphael. Or he would have been, if he hadn't been so slow. Most of the punches were coming from my red-masked companion, with Donatello delivering a few whacks of his own with his bo. I decided that the two brothers had him well in hand already, so I set my sights on the biggest threat- Saki himself.

I took aim again, and fired. The shot struck his helmet, but bounced off and ricocheted into the giant model of Jupiter above, leaving a large hole where the famous red spot had been. Oops. The blast had knocked off his helmet, but that was all. Either it was made of something much stronger than it looked, or the polished metal had acted as a mirror. I cursed, and made a mental note to have one of the guys help me with my ranged combat later.

"Who fired that?!" He roared, then turned and saw me. I saw his face for the first time, and though there was a certain handsome quality there, it was overshadowed by the seemingly permanent expression of hate, anger, and distain for everything around him that I found repellant. "So, it's that same foolish girl from before! You're going to regret doing that, meddling bitch!" He swiped at Leo's head, but my friend was expecting the attack, and ducked into his shell. He countered with a flip-kick that brought his enemy sailing over him to land on the floor. I sniggered, and Leo gave me a disapproving glare before returning to the fray. I sighed, knowing I'd be in for a lecture later. As the one in charge of his brothers, he had a protective streak a mile wide, and he took his responsibilities seriously. I'd just disobeyed an order by his reckoning, and now he was pissed. Never mind that my lucky shots had probably just saved his youngest sibling, and had turned the fight back in their favor.

That was when the one I'd shot discovered the missing case. "Hey boss! That big rock you wanted us to steal? It's gone!" He looked around for it, but I'd already hidden it behind a pillar in one of the side-galleries.

"WHAT?! You idiots can't do ANYTHING without bungling it!" He shouted angrily. But now that they realized they had lost their chance- not to mention the meteorite- Shredder cursed and gave his thugs the order to retreat. He snatched his helmet off the floor, and the others grabbed their discarded weapons and barreled off toward the doors. I just hoped the cops wouldn't try to stop them, or there would be another fire-fight outside.

"After them!" Leonardo shouted, and the four turtles started for the entrance after the villains. I stepped in front of him, and shook my head, knowing what waited outside.

"Not a good idea, guys. There are about eight or nine cops out there, and your little egg bombs have already dissipated. The media is probably out there by now, too. We're not going out that way!" I reminded them, and they all stopped short.

"Great. This just keeps getting better," growled Raph in his usual pessimistic tone. Donnie nodded agreement.

"So now what?" Michelangelo piped up. "How are we getting out of here? We can't use the front doors!"

"Okay, so we go UP," Leo answered simply. I glanced up, and was about to remind him that the upper part of the building was mostly glass and narrow steel beams, but Donnie grabbed me by the arms and hefted me onto his back as they all took off for the stairs leading to the walkway and upper level displays that encircled the giant sphere.

"Hey! I have my own legs, you know!" He reached back and pulled my legs up around his shell; I squealed in outrage when I felt his hands on my rear, and slapped the back of his head indignantly. "Watch where you put those, mister!" I protested. He mumbled an apology, though I had a feeling it hadn't been entirely accidental. But I held on, somehow suspecting that they were not planning on going up in the expected manner. I was proven right a moment later, when he launched himself more than ten feet straight up just before they reached the stairs, and grabbed hold of the railing about halfway up, swinging up and over it to land with a soft thump on the walkway. Mikey and Leo had already beaten him there, with Raphael right behind us. They all hit the ground running, stampeding toward the walkway leading to one of the upper galleries along the south wall. It was the only side that wasn't glass, and I recalled that the Rose Center was connected to a larger building that housed the galactic theater, an enormous dome-shaped movie screen that showed images of the night sky and was often used for film presentations about space exploration, with seats that leaned back so people could look up to see the entire screen.

"Yeah, well no offence, but you're not as fast as we are," Donnie replied, looking back over his shoulder at me. At that moment, I heard a loud racket down below, and looked down just in time to see several police officers burst in. Apparently, Saki and his goons had ignored them and had simply made for their vehicle.

"Turtles faster than a human? Now THERE'S irony for you," I giggled, and he snorted at the joke, shaking his head. In what seemed no time at all, we had slipped out through the theater and onto the roof, where they used small grapple-lines from their belts to swing across to the nearby Natural History Museum. I felt a hint of deja' vu as I found myself there for the second time that day, but we slid down the back wall and high-tailed it for the nearest manhole cover. Once back in the safe- relatively speaking- haven of New York's own "Underground", Leo let out a string of expletives that would have made a Navy man blush.

"Damn it, they did it AGAIN!" He bellowed. He punched the tunnel wall, and I winced. That HAD to hurt, but if it did, he ignored the pain. "And YOU! What were you THINKING?!" He rounded on me, eyes blazing, the veins in his neck standing out. I stepped back in surprise, but it quickly turned to annoyance.

"What, so I don't even get a thank you for helping out back there? I was watching YOUR backs! And for the record, there was a badly injured security guard you guys missed seeing in your mad rush to take down those creeps. If I hadn't stopped to help and get him out of there, he'd be dead. And the 'missing' meteorite was my doing too, by the way." I snapped back angrily, then stared him down, daring him to argue the point. Being the stubborn male that he is, Leo took the dare and rose to it.

"You disobeyed a DIRECT order!" He fumed, ignoring everything I'd just said. I was starting to see why Raph was always so inclined to butt heads with his older brother.

"OH! So it's okay for YOU to send me out to act as BAIT, but the second I take some initiative of my own, it's against the rules?! What is WRONG with you?!" I yelled back, disgusted. "And technically, there WERE no orders that I recall. Donnie said not to do anything until you guys got there, and I didn't. You never said anything about AFTER." Okay, so it was a cheap shot, but I was getting tired of being treated like the fifth wheel.

"DON'T try to turn this on me. You KNEW that you're not allowed to fight until Sensei thinks you're ready. And with stunts like this, I'd say that's going to be a long time coming. He's going to hear about this- BELIEVE me." He said, in that same low, dark tone I'd heard before.

"Hey, bro- I REALLY hate to say it, but she DID do pretty good back there. Now you gonna' bust the girl's chops just 'cause she acted on her own? Uncool, Leo." I was a little surprised to see Raphael taking my side, but given the fact that he was always challenging his leader's decisions, maybe this was just more of their personal rivalry.

"Back off, Raph. This is between me and her. Stay out of it." Leonardo flashed a warning glare at his brother, and Raph glared back. I sensed that another fight was imminent, so I stepped between the pair, and turned a cool gaze back at Leo.

"You're absolutely right, Leo. He IS going to hear about this- from ME." I said, and promptly stalked off through the cold, dark pipeline, heading for the den.

The next day was a Saturday, and I was only too happy to spend it in my usual volunteer position at the animal shelter. After Leo's lecture and the disappointed talk Splinter had given me, I was feeling pretty low. I felt like I'd let our teacher down, even though I knew I'd been right to do what I'd done. It was a matter of principle; I had seen a chance to do something, and I'd taken it. But that didn't seem to matter to Leonardo. He was still angry, and barely spoke to me in the lair after that fight. Instead, he made sure I worked harder than ever- probably his idea of punishment, but I wasn't about to let him win THIS battle of wills. By the time I had left that night, I'd been sore in places I'd never even known I had, but I didn't say a word of complaint, and before I left, Don and Mikey both walked me to the nearest sewer exit to apologize for their brother's harsh treatment. That made me feel a little better, but it seemed too little, too late.

One thing I did notice was that Michelangelo kept looking my way whenever he thought I wasn't paying attention. I knew I was a mess, after the extra-hard workout, what with my hair plastered down and disheveled, and the sweat poring off me even in mid-thirty degree New York winter temperatures. I couldn't help wondering; why did he keep looking at me like that? I was starting to think maybe there was something more going on with him than just a little innocent flirting here and there. But how serious it really was, I couldn't guess. Didn't want to try, either. I was afraid I might not like the answer.

Then Sunday rolled around- Valentine's Day. I was already feeling depressed from the argument with Leo and Splinter's quiet disapproval, and now here was a day intended purely to remind me that the only men in my life were all green, bald, and lived in a sewer. Yeah, my life was just peachy. I spent most of the day out working with April on a report of New York's most romantic places for a date, which only made my mood worse. By the time I was done, I was thinking a date with a half-gallon of Haagen Daas and a night curled up watching "Sleepless in Seattle" and "The Princess Bride" was starting to sound really good.

That changed the second I walked through the door to my apartment. The first thing I noticed was the trail of rose petals through the living room, leading down the short hall to my bedroom. The door had still been locked when I arrived, but someone had been there. And from the look of it, that someone was trying to send a message. The second thing I noticed was that my ginger tom-cat Trouble wasn't there to greet me at the door. He always came running when I came home, with a welcoming meow and an affectionate rub. But he was nowhere to be found. I set my purse down on the sofa and slipped the small can of pepper-spray that I'd bought for protection- at the urging of April- out of it before stepping cautiously across the room toward my private sanctuary. Something wasn't kosher about this. For one thing, no one but April had a key to my apartment, and this certainly didn't look like something she would do. And Trouble was either hiding somewhere, or had disappeared. Either way, this didn't feel like a friendly visit.

I opened the door softly, and flipped on the light. My surprise was only doubled when I saw what waited inside. Someone had left a heart-shaped box propped on the pillow, and a vase with three perfect roses- red, white, and pink- on the nightstand. The petals led all the way to the bed, and there were more of them scattered all over the quilt. Curious now, I moved over for a closer look, and noticed a small note attached to the vase.

I picked it up and turned it over, and then smiled. "Because no one should be alone on Valentine's Day" was all it said. I wondered what it meant, and was about to see if there was a clue to the mystery gift-giver inside the box, when the lights promptly went out. My first thought was a black-out. New York is notorious for power-outages, especially in winter months when the weather plays havoc with the power grid. But then I realized that the lights in the living room were still on, and even as I turned toward the door, it slammed shut, and I was left in the dark- and I realized I wasn't alone.

The next instant, I felt a pair of strong arms wrapping around me from behind, and pinning mine down. I fought to get free, but whoever it was, was incredibly strong. I started to panic, wondering if this was all part of a trap by some crazed stalker. Every psycho-killer movie I'd ever seen flashed through my memory, and I kept thinking I was that one victim who tries to fight back but ends up in a puddle of blood anyway. I'd let my guard down for one moment over the flowers and candy box, and this was my reward. Yup, I was starting to really HATE Valentine's Day!

But I wasn't going down without a good fight, I thought, and threw my head back into what I hoped was the jaw of my assailant. At the same time, I found one leg of the attacker and stepped down on the foot attached to it with my stiletto-heel. Hard.

I heard a startled yelp, in an oddly familiar tone, and the grip on me loosened a little. Suddenly suspicious, I twisted, and kneed whoever it was right in the groin. The result wasn't what I was expecting. Instead of a groan of agony, all I got was a soft grunt of annoyance, and my knee hit something a lot harder than what I'd been aiming for.

"Okay, buster, I don't know what you think you're doing, but you're going to wish you'd never messed with ME!" I growled, and braced my feet against the wall and shoved back as hard as I could. We both went crashing onto the bed, and my mystery attacker let go. I leapt up and hit the button on the pepper-spray, aiming it at the jerk who'd just grabbed me.

"YEOW! GAH, that stings! Geez, next time Leo can do this crap himself!" The voice coming from the figure sprawled on my bed was all too familiar, and I stood there in the dark gaping as I saw a very distinctive shape sitting up in the glow from the city lights outside my bedroom window. He was rubbing the end of his beak, muttering something about never volunteering for anything again.

"MIKEY?!" I exclaimed, shocked. "What are you DOING?! Have you lost your mind?!"

"You'd think," he muttered with a wheeze, as I flipped the light on. He was bent over, eyes squeezed shut, vainly trying to wipe pepper spray out of them. "Can you maybe lead me to the bathroom so I can wash this stuff out of my eyes? Man, this shit BURNS!" He was making an odd face and coughing, and I realized he must have inhaled some of it.

"Okay, but only if you tell me what the heck is going on! Why did you try to attack me like that?" I spat furiously.

"Ask Leo. It was HIS idea," He said sourly, still spitting pepper-spray out of his mouth.

I helped him to the bathroom- Trouble came darting out when I opened the door, solving the other mystery of the evening- and waited while he splashed water on his face to wash the stuff out of his eyes. "Okay, so what are you doing here, and what are you talking about?" I said when he was finished. I was starting to get the feeling he was trying to avoid the subject.

"Uh, it was sort of a test. Leo wanted you to see why you're not ready to fight yet, so he set up a little test to see how you'd react to a break-in. He was going to do this himself to prove his point, but I kind of volunteered, 'cause I was afraid he might be too rough on ya'. Guess I shouldn't have worried." He sighed, and slumped down on the edge of the bathtub, plucking a towel off the rack to dry off.

"Oh, really? Remind me to give your brother a kick in the jewels during our next practice session. I can't believe he would stoop to this!" I fumed, then paused as a thought occurred to me. "So? How did I do? Is this good enough for our 'fearless leader'?" I said, folding my arms and staring him down.

"Uh, you kind of failed the test. Sorry." He gave me an apologetic shrug, and I couldn't help feeling that he had hoped I would pass.

"What do you mean I failed? I won this little fight, didn't I?" I asked, confused. Wasn't that the reason for this ridiculous farce?

"You let your guard down, even though you knew someone snuck in here. I wasn't supposed to be able to get that close. If you were really ready, you wouldn't have been caught by surprise so easy." He seemed truly disappointed, and I wondered if maybe he wasn't telling me something. "It wasn't about bein' able to get away; the point was not lettin' yourself get caught off guard in the first place. A fighter who lets their guard down doesn't last long."

"Okay, I can see his point, but this is pretty low- I mean, the flowers and candy? Is that his idea of a bad joke? As traps go, it's pretty cruel!" I growled. Now that I knew what it was all about, I was starting to get more than a little angry. Oh yes, I was definitely going to have a few words with Leonardo the next time I saw him. Maybe a few punches to his smug beak, while I was at it.

"Actually, those were my idea. I figured since it was Valentine's and all…" He shrugged, and gave me a half-hearted smile.

"You did that?" I asked, suddenly confused. "But you said this was a test… Why would you make it look like something from an admirer?" I didn't quite get the logic.

"I was thinkin' that maybe you'd get suspicious enough to figure out somethin' was up and find me before I could get the jump on you. I knew you didn't have a boyfriend or anything, so who ELSE would be able to get in here to set all that up?" He rubbed his beak again, and I realized what he'd been doing.

"You were trying to cheat?" I asked, incredulous. Now I was REALLY confused. And even more so when he nodded meekly. "So he didn't know about the flowers and the box?" I asked. He shook his head, and I suddenly understood.

"He just told me to make it look like someone was here. He didn't say how," Mikey sighed, and I knew that the sweet-seeming gesture had been entirely his idea, start to finish. Even the note suddenly made sense; it had been a warning! I suddenly had a new respect for him. Despite what the others claimed, he was hardly as dumb as he sometimes seemed. In fact, I was starting to see just how devious and clever he could be!

Now I'd heard everything. One was trying to teach me a lesson in humility, the other was going behind his brother's back to help me pass. It didn't make much sense. Or maybe it did, in a weird sort of way. He'd always been my strongest ally among the four, and now he had my back once again, even against his own brother. I laughed. I couldn't help it. The whole thing was just too ironic!

"Well, I've got to give you points for originality. The note was a nice touch, by the way. I should have known it was a warning when it mentioned not being alone! Too bad it didn't quite work." I went back into the bedroom, and looked around. Aside from the petals everywhere, nothing had been disturbed. I knew that if it had been Leonardo, there would have been furniture moved, things overturned, maybe even an item or two missing. I decided I liked Mikey's approach better- it was pretty romantic, actually.

"Yeah, well, I guess I'd better get back and deliver the bad news. He's probably pacin' the lair, waitin' to find out the verdict, if I know my big bro." He grimaced as he hobbled back into the bedroom, and I suddenly had an impish idea.

"Good! Then let's let him stew a little, shall we?" I said with a grin, and when he frowned in confusion, I winked. "I say we get back at him by making him wait. Over some ice cream and a movie or two, maybe? What do you say? There's a tub of cherry cheesecake Haagen Daas in the freezer that's been calling my name all day, and if I eat it all by myself, I'm going to regret it tomorrow. Besides, it's the least I can do after I hit you with the pepper spray!"

His answer was a wide grin and a laugh so infectious that I had to join in. "Count me in! Sounds like a good way to stick it to him to me!" He said, and I nodded agreement.

"Great! I'll go get the tub and the spoons!" I replied. We spent the rest of the evening chatting over ice cream while watching Tom Hanks and Cary Elwes search for the loves of their lives. I laughed when Mikey started doing imitations of the giant and the Spaniard, and even Vizzini. With his talent for vocal mimicry, I jokingly told him he should do cartoon voices. He just sighed and shook his head, and said that there were a lot of things he wished he could do. That ended the conversation for the time being, so we just sat and enjoyed each other's company in silence for a while. As dates go, it was one of the best I'd ever had. Even though it wasn't really a date at all.

I ended up falling asleep there on the sofa, with my head on a pillow in his lap. It's funny, but I've never been so comfortable around anyone like that before. I don't remember him putting me to bed, but he must have, because I woke up the next morning in my own room, under the covers, but still in the clothes I'd worn the day before. The vase still sat on my night stand, and the loose petals had all been piled neatly in the middle of the bed. The box of chocolates was on my dresser; I smiled ruefully when I saw it all, reminded of our tussle in the dark. I made a mental note to apologize for the pepper spray, since I knew he hadn't really wanted to attack me. Leo, on the other hand, owed ME an apology. And one way or another, I was going to get it out of him….


	5. Chapter 5

Michelangelo's Journal: Part Two

Okay, so where do I start? Guess I should start with that fight at the planetarium. That's when things started to turn sour between me and my bros. See, I've never complained much about Leo bein' in charge. He's the oldest, and the most responsible. Besides, he's always had our backs. But sometimes I feel like they just don't need me. Most of the time, I end up bein' the one creating the diversions. In other words, I'm always the bait. Trust me, it sucks. But Leo had Orlene do it this time instead, which I thought was kind of wrong, since she's not as experienced as we are. What's worse, she KNEW what he was doin', too. And she wasn't happy about it. I didn't blame her.

We got in with no problem, and caught chrome-dome and those two morons red-handed. We never DID find out what old tin-grin wanted that thing for. Donnie thinks maybe it was made of some really rare and valuable metal or somethin'. I say- who cares? Knowin' him, he was probably gonna' use it for a weapon or somethin' like that. He's bad news no matter how ya' slice it. Sometimes I just wish Leo would let us take him out for GOOD. We'd be doin' the world a BIG favor.

Anyway, things didn't go so well. It was all well and good at first. I was givin' that douche-bag Bebop a good smack-down, and havin' a bit of fun doing it, and Raph was makin' Rocksteady look like a chump. Okay, so some days it's GOOD to be me! Well, at least until he got a lucky punch in that knocked me for a loop. Then he started puttin' the squeeze on me, and not in a good way- even if I DID swing that way. I'm not really the hugging type anyway, and ESPECIALLY not when the one doin' the hugging is tryin' to crush me like a soda can!

Leo and Donnie had their hands full with Mr. Personality, and then he got the upper hand on 'em. Things weren't looking too good, and the next thing I know, SHE pops up with one of those Foot blasters, and parts Bebop's hair! Score one for the good guys! Er, gals, I guess. Then she shot Shred-head's helmet off, and that really turned the fight for us. But once we were back down in the sewers, all Leo could think of was how she'd gotten in the middle of things when she shouldn't have. Raph even tried to call him on it, and he just blew it off. That's Leo for ya', though. Dude always has to be right, even when he KNOWS he's wrong. I didn't say anything then, but maybe I should have- not that anyone would listen to me. They never do. Anytime somethin' smells fishy, and I get a bad feelin', do they ever listen? NO-OO! It's always "Shut up, Mikey!" Yeah, and then when things go bad, and I try to say, "I told you so!" It's just more of the same. Next time, I'll just keep my mouth shut and let 'em find out the hard way. It'd serve 'em right.

Anyway, they weren't exactly on good terms for a while after that, and it didn't help when Leo came up with his 'brilliant' idea to teach her a lesson in alertness and humility. Personally, I thought it stunk. I mean, what kind of jerk decides to jump someone in their own home, just to prove they aren't ready for a real battle? Oh, wait- that would be Leo. Fearless leader? Please- dictator is more like it. Can't do ANYTHING without him tryin' to tell me I'm doin' it wrong.

He really made her work hard in the practice room that evening. I started to think maybe he was goin' too far, so after we were done for the day, I went with Donnie to walk her out, and we both apologized for the way big bro was acting. She wasn't buyin' it, though. Guess she thought we were just sayin' it to be nice, since we didn't say anything earlier. Raph was the only one who defended her, which made me feel a little guilty. I just didn't know what to say- and it's not like he'd pay any more attention to my opinion than he did to Raph's. So I kept my trap shut, and she ended up a little ticked at all of us.

So the next day was Saturday, and I didn't see her at all, which had me a little bummed out, to be honest. Funny how when you spend so much time around someone, you start to EXPECT them to be around. Then it just feels weird when they're not. Then Leo decided to pull his little "test", and that's when I had enough. When he told us what he had in mind, I decided that it might be fun to sabotage his plan just to shut him up for once. Like I said, I'm not as dumb as everyone thinks. I just don't go in for all that science and history stuff that Donnie and Leo are always reading. It usually just puts me to sleep. Well, unless it's something about space travel or something cool like that. I have this little secret- sometimes I like to watch those science channels on cable when they have good stuff on like those nature shows about Africa, or the ones about the space missions NASA sends up. I think I'd like to be an astronaut, if they'd ever let mutant turtles in.

I convinced Leo he should have me give her the test, cause it wouldn't be fair if he went. He's a little TOO good at all that stealth and hiding stuff. I knew she wouldn't have a chance if he did it. So I dropped a few hints that if she couldn't catch ME, then there wasn't a chance in the world she was ready. Yeah, I'm just THAT good at knowin' how to get what I want around him. But he's easy- you just gotta' know how to make him think it's HIS idea. So he agreed to let me go, and told me to make it look like someone broke in and messed with the place. Heh, BIG mistake, dude.

See, I've been watchin' her for a while- not in a creepy way, mind, but y'know, just keeping' an eye on her, and I noticed she was single- as in, not even a casual date kind of single. And it made me think that maybe she might get a little depressed when it came time for all the hearts and flowers and cards. It's tough when you're all alone in a big city, and everyone else is holding hands and havin' fancy dinners or whatever. So I thought I'd use the test as an excuse to maybe give her a hint. And a warning, too. Okay, so I was cheating a little, but with what Leo was doin' to her, I really just wanted to make him look like the jerk he was bein'. Y'know, let karma come back to bite him?

It didn't quite work the way I planned, but I gotta hand it to Orlene, she put up a good fight when I grabbed her. Mostly, I just liked havin' an excuse to get that close. Er, not that I'd ever try anything, but a guy takes what he can get, y'know? It was all good until she got out of the grapple and pepper-sprayed me. I wasn't too happy about getting' a face-full of that stuff, but then again, who WOULD be? Gettin' your beak pounded by the back of someone's head, or a high heel slammed into your foot's not too pleasant either, but I can handle that. It's better than havin' your legs broken, that's for sure. Yeah, THAT wasn't fun.

Anyway, when she found out what was goin' on, she was pretty steamed, but not at me, thankfully. Mostly she was ticked at my bro for settin' her up like that. So we made him wait all night before I went back to tell him how it went. I got another one of his bitch-fests about comin' home late, but by then I didn't care. Sensei just ignored the whole mess, and told us to work out our own problems. I guess that means he didn't want to take sides. Lately I've noticed he's been goin' off by himself a lot, and stayin' in his own room when he's not actually teaching us or watchin' those dumb soap operas he likes so much. Not sure, but I think maybe somethin's wrong. He IS kind of old, so maybe he's not feelin' as good as he used to. Sometimes I wonder how much longer we'll have him around. How long do rats live, anyway? We don't like to talk about it, but we all worry about him sometimes.

Uh, anyway, where was I? Oh yeah- the "date", if you can call it that. It was kind of nice just havin' some time alone with her, AWAY from the guys. And if there's one thing I've learned, it's never turn down an offer of ice cream and a good flick! I've always been kind of partial to "The Princess Bride" anyway, especially the big guy in it. We just kicked back and took turns eatin' right out of the ice cream tub- gotta love a dudette who doesn't care about eatin' out of the container instead of a bowl! That's how ya' know you've got a good one- some women get a little too uptight about things like proper manners, or keeping things so clean it looks like one of those model homes. Bleh, who NEEDS that? I'd rather just enjoy the little things. I even kind of liked it when she fell asleep in my lap watchin' the movies. But, I had to go home sooner or later, so I ended up carryin' her to bed; then I left, but all the way home, I kept thinkin' about how I was gonna' tell Leo about the test. I finally decided not to tell him about the candy or the flowers- he wouldn't understand anyway. I ended up just tellin' him that she only partly failed- which is technically true, 'cause she DID have that damn spray when I jumped her.

Well, I guess that's about it for now, 'cause I hear Master Splinter callin' us for our morning workout. Me, I'd rather have breakfast first, but eh, what can ya' do? Anyway, there's more to tell, but this is where it gets kinda' hard. A lot of stuff happened that was WAY bad, and some of it was my fault. For one thing, Orlene and I had this little misunderstanding, and it was totally NOT my fault, but she didn't seem to agree, and- well, it's sort of complicated. Anyway, guess I'll pick this up again later, when I can get a free minute. Yeah, like THAT'S possible with Mr. Big-shot leader around! Dude SERIOUSLY needs to take a chill-pill….


	6. Chapter 6

Captured!

I guess it should have been obvious to me by that point, but I still didn't have a clue that a certain green friend had taken more than a passing fancy to me. And being an otherwise normal teen-aged male, I suppose it should come as no surprise that he was as interested in female anatomy as anyone. Yet being the kind of guy he is, and since I was as yet unaware of his true feelings, I saw no reason not to trust him. But then something occurred to shake that trust, and it only made what happened later all the harder to forgive.

It started about three weeks after my blow-out with Leo over his little "test". Most of what we said to each other in the practice room the day after Valentine's isn't repeatable, so I'll just say that we finally agreed to disagree about whether or not his methods were fair or ethical. One thing I realized, though, was that as much as he tries to deny it, he has a bit of a sexist streak when it comes to women fighting. At the very least, he's got a male superiority complex that's just appalling in this day and age. Or maybe it's just that his need to be perfect at everything causes him to measure everyone else against impossible standards. I think maybe it's both.

After that argument, I started showing up early for lessons, and staying later, just to show him that I was just as dedicated as any of them. Mostly, I just wanted to make him eat his words about my not being ready. In fact, I made it a point to work harder than anyone, including Leo himself. Eventually even he had to admit that my efforts were starting to pay off, and as much as it galled him, he finally realized that I was serious about being part of the team.

By now it was March, and the city was in the middle of a very wet New York spring. My trips down through the sewers to the den were becoming harder to navigate with the rain running off into the city's sanitation system. It was a day when the rain had been almost constant, and the pipes were inundated with rushing rain water in some parts of the city. Never-the-less, I was determined to keep my appointed lesson, if only to prove that Leonardo was wrong. In hindsight, maybe I should have stayed away, but then I would never have discovered the truth. I was just lucky I had called ahead that evening, and even luckier that they decided to send Mikey up to meet me as an escort. One of these days I'm going to have to find out whose idea that REALLY was….

We were using one of the larger passages running down Broadway past 8th Avenue, taking a longer route by necessity- the more direct path was flooded, leaving us to slog through knee-high run-off, through nearly a mile of tunnels, on the way to their home. The rain had been relatively light for several hours, but shortly after we began the long walk, the rain picked up tremendously. In a matter of minutes, the water had risen almost to our waists, and I was starting to worry. Even my guide was starting to look nervous, and he was supposed to be at home in the water!

"Is this normal?" I asked when the water had reached my chest. "How are we going to get to the lair if this keeps up?"

He looked around thoughtfully, then grimaced and shook his head. "We can't. We're gonna' have to make a little detour until the water goes down. C'mon, I know a place where we can wait it out!"

"Shouldn't we just give up and go topside to wait it out?" I asked, as a dead rat floated past me. This was NOT instilling me with a lot of confidence….

"No good. Most of the connecting tunnels in this area are gonna' be flooded worse than this. We'd never make it to a maintenance shaft without gettin' carried away, and even if we could, there's nowhere else to go!" Okay, I was starting to get really worried now. If we got trapped in the wrong sewer tunnel in a flood, making it to my lesson would be the LEAST of my problems. "Don't worry, babe! We'll be okay, just TRUST me!" He flashed a bright smile at me, but I had the feeling he was trying to convince himself as much as me.

"Okay, but let's hurry!" I urged, watching leaves swirling in the rising water. I was shivering, terrified, and practically swimming in a dark, cold tunnel that looked no different than any of a dozen others I'd seen. How the boys managed to navigate in the maze of pipelines that was New York's sewer system was anyone's guess. I would have been hopelessly lost by now without him there to guide me.

Then he grabbed my hand and hauled me up onto his back. This sort of thing was becoming a habit with them. "Oh, I guess I should warn you- we're gonna' have to go under for a short way. How long can you hold your breath?" Lovely, I thought. NOW he tells me!

"WHAT?! Are you sure this is a good idea?!" I cried, but I hung on anyway, my arms wrapped around his neck. I hoped he was as good a swimmer as his pet-shop cousins.

"Like I said- TRUST me!" He shouted back over the sound of rushing water ahead. "Okay- hold on- and breathe NOW!" I did as he said, and took a deep breath as he dived under and swam for a side tunnel off to the right. I saw a small plaque on the wall that read 65th St. Transverse, and realized we were headed somewhere under Central Park. Where was he taking me?

A short time later, we came up in a collection shaft, sputtering as we both drew in a deep lung-full of air. He pulled out his grapple and swung us up to another pipe on the other side, and we continued on. The new tunnel was higher, but narrower, leaving us fighting the current as we tried to push on. At last, he turned down another passage on the left, and told me to hold tight and hold my breath again. I did, and we made better headway this time, since the current was carrying us in the same direction now. I wondered again where we were going, but he seemed to know his way, so there was nothing to do but have faith that we would get through this. Then we came to the end of the pipe, and I felt a moment of panic as we fell down another collection shaft. I screamed, and inadvertently let go. The last thing I remember is plunging into a huge holding tank, and swallowing a mouthful of dirty New York rain-water….

The next thing I remember is lying on my back coughing up water. I opened my eyes, only to stare right into a pair of large gold-brown eyes attached to a round green head whose beak was- I blinked, as I felt a large hand resting against my chest, and shook my head to dislodge the mouth pressed to mine. I came up swinging, and heard a yelp of pain as my fist connected with said beak.

"OW! Son of a snapper! What the heck was THAT for?!" He exclaimed in surprise, rubbing where I'd hit him.

"Let's get something straight here, Chumley- just because we're FRIENDS does NOT give you the right to start getting 'friendly'!" I snapped back, shoving him backward as I sprang up- and promptly doubled over in a coughing fit. I felt a throbbing pain in my head, and a little dizzy, too. Then I looked around, wondering where we were. "Where- what IS this place?!" I asked, gazing around at a huge room full of gigantic hydraulic pumps, tanks, and catwalks. We were up on one of the catwalks, in a dark corner near what I took to be the back wall.

"I guess that means you're okay- man, you really hit hard for a girl! Anyway, we're in an old pump station under Belvedere Castle. This place used to be one of our old lairs until the city decided to renovate it about a year ago and we had to move out. It's not real comfortable now, but at least it's dry."

I was still steamed by this hard-shelled Cyrano's apparent advances, but something in his voice made me turn around. "So, you used to LIVE here?! And what do you mean 'one of' your old homes? How many have you had?" I reached up to rub the sore spot, and discovered a small gash over my left temple. It stung, and when I lowered my hand, there was blood. Lovely.

"Hey- you're bleeding. Here, let's put something on that," He said, seeing what I was staring at. He took the bright orange mask off his own head and wrapped it around mine as a makeshift bandage. I found it strange to see him without it- as near as I could tell, the turtles only ever took them off to sleep. He talked as he wound it over the gash, answering my question. "This one was number three. Our first one was discovered by Shred-head's Foot soldiers. They trashed the place and took Master Splinter, and we had to rescue him. After that, we couldn't go back, so we stayed with April in the apartment above her old antique shop for a while before it burned down, and then we went up-state with April and Casey to his grandparents' farm for a while to heal from a fight with Senior Psychopath, and when we came back, we ended up in an old subway station that was part of an abandoned line. THAT one ended up in ruins with the ceiling coming down, courtesy of one Dr. Baxter Stockman and his stupid robotic mouse-traps. Those things ate right through the walls and attacked us! That's when we found this place." I listened quietly, realizing that there was a lot of personal history here that I hadn't yet heard.

"Mouse-traps? Why did they come after YOU?" I asked, confused.

"He sent them to hunt us down, 'cause he was working with you-know-who. But when the mousers didn't get the job done, Tin-grin decided to get rid of him, and uh- do you remember Jeff Goldblume in 'the Fly'?" He gave me a meaningful look, and I suddenly shivered, as a horrifying thought came to me.

"He turned him into a FLY?!" I asked, aghast.

"Well, not on purpose. It wasn't an experiment like Rocksteady and Bebop were. He threw him into a molecular disintegrator- I think that's what Donnie called it- but there was some kind of accident. Y'know, like with that fly in the teleporter in the movie."

I felt queasy, hearing that. I remembered that movie well enough to feel sorry for anyone subjected to that kind of fate. "Yeah, but that thing in the movie wasn't even really a fly, it was fused with the teleporter!" I said, frowning.

"Uh, maybe I'm thinkin' of the other one- the one where it's his kid with that reporter chick. Y'know, where he was growin' really fast and ended up mutating into that huge monster-fly before his girlfriend helped make him human again? And just so ya' know, I WASN'T tryin' to get friendly! You nearly drowned!"

"Ugh, don't remind me, that thing was totally creepy." I shuddered. Just when I thought life around these guys couldn't get any weirder, they would spring something like that on me, and I was reminded all over again that I'd walked right into a bizarre world of mutant monsters, alien tech, and power-mad psychopaths. Yup, my life would definitely never be the same. "Wait- I did?!" He nodded, and I suddenly felt really foolish for hitting him.

I shivered again, and he waved a hand my way as he turned his back to me. "You might wanna' get out of those wet clothes before you catch a cold or somethin'," he said, glancing over his shoulder.

I gave him a look that left no doubt as to how I felt about that idea. "You MUST be joking. No way in HELL am I going to strip down in front of you! Get REAL!" I rolled my eyes and made a disgusted face at him. On second thought, maybe I wasn't so sorry I'd punched him after all.

"What?! There's no tellin' WHAT'S in that water you swallowed! And you're shakin' like a leaf!" He shrugged, and I heard a note of genuine concern in his voice. I frowned, wondering why he was acting so strangely. This wasn't the care-free goofball I was used to seeing. In fact, he almost reminded me of Leo at the moment.

"Yeah, well, unless you can somehow magically produce something for me to cover up with, it's NOT gonna' happen." I stared him down, arms folded in annoyance.

"Hmmm, about that- if I remember right, Donnie stashed some stuff here before we moved out, in case we ever had to use this place again in an emergency. Maybe it's still here!" He brightened, and started looking around the enormous room.

"Well, why didn't you SAY so?!" I said, rolling my eyes at him. As fun as he was to be around, there were times when Mikey was simply exasperating. Then again, no one had ever accused him of being a rocket scientist.

"Geez, ya' didn't have to get snippy about it, Anyway, we'll probably be stuck here for a while. There's too much water everywhere to go back into those tunnels now. And the others won't be able to come look for us, either. So we might as well get comfortable and make the best of it." Yes, I decided, he was definitely sounding like his more serious oldest brother. Even his voice was a little different; he somehow sounded- older. Wiser, even. It was a change that I found intriguing. There was clearly far more to him than he ever let show when the others were around. The showing off, the jokes and occasional pranks, even the taunts at opponents- it was all a front, I realized. The truth was probably closer to a laid-back, come-what-may kind of attitude, cloaked in that attention-seeking outer persona that really just wanted to be useful for something.

"Hmm, now if I were Don, WHERE would I hide those supplies?" He mused, frowning thoughtfully. I looked around, wondering how anyone could have endured the constant drone of the pumps, the creak of the metal walkways, the rushing of water through the holding tanks into pipes that led to the city's treatment plants, or the cold dampness of the place, let alone make it into a home. Compared to this, their current abode seemed almost- cozy. At least it was quieter.

At last he pulled out his grapple again, hopping up onto the top bar of the rail, and threw out the line at one of the pipes running along the ceiling. He swung up and across the room until he caught a small pipe and grabbed onto it, releasing the line to reel it back in, then shimmied along the pipe until he reached a nook above a support beam at the other end. He reached up and felt around on top of the small ledge; then I heard a shout of triumph.

"Jackpot! Oh, yeah- WHO 'da turtle?! I'M 'da turtle!" He yanked out a large bundle, tied up with a cord, and tied it onto his belt, then swiftly reversed course, making his way back. When he dropped lightly- with a silence that was almost eerie- onto the catwalk, he had a huge grin on his face. "TA-DAA!" He exclaimed, taking a mock-bow. "Milady, your wish is granted!"

I chuckled and shook my head in amusement. Apparently, he was back to acting like his usual goof-off self. "Okay, Sir Laughs-alot, can we just dispense with the theatrics? What's the good news?"

He untied the bundle, and it unrolled into a stack of blankets wrapped around five flashlights, a family-sized jar of peanut-butter with five spoons stuck to it with duct-tape, a dozen cans of tuna- with a can-opener- a box of likely stale saltines, and a dozen water-bottles. In other words, enough food for five for perhaps two days. "Not much here, but it's better than nothing," he muttered, picking up one of the flashlights. It was dead. He tried three more before finding the only two that still had good batteries. "Guess this is as good as it gets," he said with a sigh. "Sorry we don't have more, but at least we won't be hungry."

"Thanks, Mikey, at least it's something." I agreed, and picked up one of the blankets. I flipped it open and held it out at him. "Here, Mr. 'I'm 'da turtle'. Make yourself useful and hold this up for me. And NO peeking, or that pepper-spray is going to seem PLEASANT compared to what I'll do to you if you do!"

He shrugged again. "OKAY, I get the point! Sheesh, it's not like I'm TRYIN' to look- I mean, ya' look like ya' just took first place in a wet t-shirt contest, fer cryin' out loud!" He took the blanket and held it up between us as a screen while I peeled off my wet clothes.

"Ugh! And THAT'S why you got smacked earlier," I shot back, with a disgusted sigh. "Guys are SUCH perverts! So, how long do you think we'll be here?" I continued, hoping to change the subject. The current state of my attire was not something I wanted to draw any more attention to. I was already a bit uncomfortable with the notion that I had just been ogled by a 5'3" mutant reptile martial-artist with a taste for peanut-butter and jelly pizza and 80's rock. I wasn't even sure which was worse, the fact that he had noticed, or that I found myself feeling self-conscious about it. Talk about weird situations. I bent over and wriggled my way out of the sodden jeans, tossing them over the rail to dry, then glanced down at the shirt plastered to my skin. I suddenly felt heat rising in my face, as I realized what he'd meant.

"Dunno, maybe a few hours?" He answered.

I glanced up, only to see those eyes gazing back at me over the edge of the blanket. I noticed the blanket starting to dip down a few inches, and jerked it back up impatiently above his head. "A little higher , IF you don't mind?" I said, annoyed. Then I tugged off my shirt and slapped it over the rail. I kept on my under-things- just in case- and finally snatched the blanket back and wrapped it around me like a tortilla.

"Y'know, not to criticize or anything, but don't you think you're takin' this clothes thing a little too seriously?" He asked, moving over to flop down with his back against the railing. I gave him a skeptical look, and sat down opposite him.

"Says a guy who runs around naked all the time. Sure, it's okay for you four, but us primates don't have the luxury. Have you ever had a really bad sunburn? Trust me, it's not fun. At least you have that thick skin to provide some protection." I stared back with one brow raised, leaning back casually. I figured I'd made my point.

"Yeah, okay- I'll give you that one. But it's not all peaches and sunshine for US, either. Do you think I LIKE living like this? Do you think I want to spend the rest of my life skulking around underground like a mole, or worrying that someone might turn us into a freak show exhibit- or WORSE?! We didn't ASK to be this way."

I lowered my gaze, realizing I'd hit a nerve. "I'm sorry," I said softly, "that's not what I meant. Sometimes I forget how hard it is for all of you, not being able to have a normal life. I see the way you all look out for each other, and I guess- it makes me miss my own family. I never had any brothers or sisters, and all my relatives are a thousand miles away. When I moved here with my folks, we left everything behind- my friends, my grandparents, everything I knew. And after what happened, I was completely alone. I had to try to stand on my own, with no one there to support me. And I wasn't even out of high school then. I had to sell off most of my parents things just to pay for the funerals. Including our home." I still remembered the months I'd spent staying in a cockroach-infested motel before I'd finally managed to access what passed for an inheritance and land the internship at Channel Six. That was what I had used to move into my apartment, and it was still a struggle to keep up with living costs.

"You did that all alone? That- must have been hard. I don't know what I'd do without Master Splinter and my brothers around. We always have each others' backs. I know it doesn't always SEEM like it, but we're family, and we DO care about each other." He picked up one of the water bottles and pulled one of the spoons from the peanut-butter jar. He opened the jar and handed both to me. "Hungry? It's the crunchy kind."

"Thank you- don't mind if I do," I replied, taking the jar, spoon, and bottle from his hands. Our hands touched for a moment, and I felt the cool, tough skin there. I was reminded of soft, well-tanned leather, and for just an instant, I had an image of some hunter trying to skin Mikey for a pair of boots- though heaven HELP anyone who tried!

We sat in silence for a few minutes while I ate right out of the jar. I'm not too proud for that; when you're hungry, you take what you can get, and "proper" ettiquette doesn't seem so important. I've been that hungry a few times, after being out on my own. While I dug into the peanut-butter, he just opened another bottle and leaned back to relax.

"Aren't you hungry?" I asked after a while. He shook his head, sipped from the water bottle, and sighed.

"Nah, we ate before I left to meet you. What I AM, is bored." He downed the rest in one gulp, and set it down as he shot up and whipped out his ever-present nunchaku. My gaze snapped up to see what had caused the swift reaction, only to see him do a back-flip up onto the top of the railing again, where he proceeded to slip easily into a practice routine with the whirling sticks. It started with simple moves that soon became ever more complex and difficult, as he worked them in a hypnotic pattern of spinning, cracking, snapping maneuvers. He closed his eyes, apparently working from memory, always keeping the wooden sticks in motion. I watched in awe, wondering how anyone could control them so completely. I knew from my own lessons that his was one of the more difficult weapons to master- and here he was making it look like child's play. Even more amazing was that he was doing it while balanced precariously on a narrow metal bar, with eyes shut.

Then he started adding kicks into the attacks, and I could only sit back and stare in complete amazement. He was smiling slightly, as if enjoying the random play. It occurred to me then that as much as he complained about doing practice drills, when it was his own idea, Mikey could be every bit as focused and intense as any of his siblings. I also realized that he possessed an uncanny grace and speed that I'd rarely ever seen in our daily practice. It went on for several more minutes, before he finally leapt up and somersaulted down to land with cat-like silence, snapping both 'chucks together in his hands as he did. He opened his eyes again, and there was a look of quiet serenity on his face that seemed slightly out of place. Almost as if he had become someone else for those few moments. He took a slow, deep breath, then turned to look at me.

"Wow," I said softly as he sat down next to me. He wasn't even breathing hard. "How do you DO it?" I asked, one brow raised.

"Do what?" He asked, his expression furrowed into a curious frown.

"Make that look so easy. I knew you guys were good, but that was incredible! I've seen Leo practice the same moves for hours, just to get them perfect, but that- why don't you ever work that hard during lessons?" I was really curious now. I'd been studying with them all long enough now to know that this was far more skill than he usually showed, and he hadn't even been trying.

"Dunno. It's always been easy for me. You thought I was workin' HARD? That was just for kicks. I don't see why the others always work so hard; I've never really NEEDED to. Like it just comes naturally, y'know? Like instinct. Guess that's why I slack off so much- it's boring when it feels like I'm just doing the same things over and over when I've already got it down, just because Sensei thinks we need the practice." He let out a long sigh, staring up at the ceiling. "Life's too short to waste it doin' the same old thing, day after day."

And just like that, everything fell into place. Where his brothers were content with their lives, Mikey felt confined in their secret world, trapped by obligation and circumstance in a life he did not want. As much as he loved his family, what he wanted most in the world was freedom from the rigid, strict existence that ruled his home.

"Well, it's still pretty impressive. Too bad you don't do that in the training room- you'd give Leo a run for the money!" I said, giving a mock-punch to his arm.

"Nah, if I REALLY cut loose, he'd end up eatin' crow for life!" He replied, snickering. "Dude takes himself WAY too seriously. Along with everything else. You know what his favorite show is? Deadliest Warrior! Like, can we say 'I have NO life'?! He eats, sleeps, and BREATHES this stuff. That's not living, that's a prison sentence."

"This coming from someone who never takes ANYTHING seriously. Why do you always treat everything like a joke?" I asked, shaking my head at the irony of his view. They were polar opposites, to be sure; one disciplined and obedient to a fault, the other impulsive and uncontrollable. Like a force of nature, it seemed. Wild, unpredictable, and impossible to keep contained.

He picked up the empty bottle and sat staring at it for a long moment, as though contemplating something. Then he spoke, and what came out was completely unexpected. "If I tell you a secret, would you promise not to say a WORD to the guys? Somethin' I've never let ANYONE in on?" I turned to gaze at him, and found a look there that was almost unreadable- mischievous, yet vaguely serious, too. Light, but wickedly devious. I found myself wondering just WHO he really was in there.

"Okay," I said, nodding slowly. "Color me curious. What's the big secret?"

"It's about why I do what I do. Y'know, the jokes and pranks, all that. See, the guys think I'm just clownin' around for the attention, and sure, there's some truth to that- but not just 'cause I want people to LIKE me- it's 'cause, well…" He paused, and frowned slightly, as if finding the words was difficult. "The way I see it, makin' people laugh keeps them from fighting. The truth is, I HATE fighting. It's pointless, and it never really gets anybody anywhere. Ya' can't shoot or punch someone when you're too busy laughin' at a good joke. Humor is the one thing that can stop a fight in its tracks. Comedy makes folks put aside differences faster than just about anything! I guess you could say I try to spread peace through humor. The world NEEDS more laughter- more peace. So that's my way of makin' things better."

My jaw dropped. Philosphy from a self-proclaimed goof-off? Who knew?! Now it all made sense. The jokes, the stupid pranks on Raph, all of it. In his own way, he was perhaps the most insightful of them all….

I didn't know what to say to that, so I just leaned back again and stared down at the floor down below the catwalk. We sat there for a while, just listening to the sound of the water rushing into the tanks before being pumped off to who-knows-where, while I munched thoughtfully from the jar of peanut-butter. Meanwhile, he bent his left leg up and began tapping one hand lightly in a rythym against his thigh, idly humming something to himself. I recognized it as CCR's "Who'll Stop the Rain", and smiled to myself. Apparently, he had a sense of humor even when it came to music.

"Okay, still bored," he muttered, pausing in the soft humming. I was inclined to agree.

"Yeah. So much for my lesson today," I said sourly. "Leo will probably work me twice as hard tomorrow, just to make up for it. Do you think they'll be worried about us?" I asked, suddenly realizing how late we were.

"Maybe. Guess we should at least let 'em know what happened. I'll call in quick on my-" He said, starting to dig around in the small pouch on his belt for his shell-cell. He paused in mid-sentence, and a look of concern crossed his features, followed swiftly by panic. "Son of a snapper! It's gone!"

I groaned. "Terrific. I take it that means we have no way to call them? I left mine at home, since I was going to be with you guys anyway. Leo's going to KILL us when we get back! Sometimes his drill-sergeant attitude really gets on my nerves. Was he ALWAYS like that?"

Mikey shook his head and muttered a curse, resigned to the fact that we were completely on our own now. He sighed and shrugged. "Hard to say. I don't remember a time big bro wasn't ridin' us all about bein' responsible, or makin' father proud of us. He tries too hard, though. He tries to be strong and brave, to look out for the rest of us, but he forgets that we don't need it any more. I think that's why Raph is always pushin' like he does. He gets mad at Leo for bein' so perfect all the time. I hate it when they fight, 'cause then they usually don't talk to each other for days after that, and they both get snappy at ME. Like it's MY fault they were in a tiff to begin with. It's so stupid."

I turned to see him staring sadly down at his weapons. This was the most serious I'd ever seen him, and the first time I'd heard him call Splinter "father". I kicked myself mentally, because for all that he was their teacher, I tended to forget that he was also their parent.

"So what do we do now?" I asked. "We have a lot of time to kill, and the rain doesn't seem to be letting up, if that flow is anything to judge by."

"Well, nothin' says you can't still learn somethin just 'cause we're not at home. I could teach you," he answered, cocking his head to gaze at me with a quirky smile. "It'd give us both somethin' to do to pass the time, anyway."

"And exactly how am I supposed to learn anything when I'm wrapped in this blanket?" I asked pointedly, putting away the half-empty jar and spoon. "I can't do kattas while I'm holding this thing up, that's for sure!"

"Um, maybe something less- physical?" He suggested, then slid into his best imitation of Splinter. "Ah, young grasshopper, today I shall teach you the art of the lasting breath…." I giggled at the irreverent impression, and he grinned. "No, seriously. You need to work on your breathing techniques. You'd never last long if we got into a bad situation under water. Don't worry- this will be easy compared to what he USUALLY has you doin'." I spent the next two hours learning how to control my breath under his guidance. And for once, I didn't mind the lesson OR the one teaching it.

When it was over, we just sat together and talked for a while, enjoying ourselves in spite of our bad situation. Eventually, he picked up the jar and another spoon, and finished off the peanut-butter. By then, the constant drone of the pumps and the gushing torrent from the pipes had begun to make me feel sleepy, so I spread out two of the blankets into a pair of makeshift beds, and used the other two as pillows.

"Are you sure it's safe here?" I asked, yawning, before I settled down. "What if someone comes down here and finds us?" I wasn't truly worried for myself- I could always claim to be lost after falling down an open drain or something. I was more concerned about my all-too anomalous companion being seen by a city worker. Ever since the battle at that chemical plant, rumors had been flying about strange creatures being sighted around the city.

"No problem- not much chance of anyone comin' down here in this mess. I'll keep watch, though, if it makes ya' feel better." He gave me a reassuring smile, so I hugged him briefly, then dropped onto one of the blankets.

"Thanks Mikey," I said quietly. "I'm glad you're here. I don't know what I would have done without your help. And for the record, Raph is wrong about you. They all are. Don't sell yourself short- you could do anything you wanted, if you just tried. Anything at all." I pulled the blanket tighter around me, and closed my eyes. And as I drifted off, I heard him move over to the other blanket to lie down, and I thought I heard a soft whisper.

"Anything but what I want MOST…."

When I woke, the water from the large pipe had slowed to a trickle, and I felt a moment of confusion before remembering where we were. I sat up and looked around for Micehlangelo, as the blanket beside me was empty and looked as if it had barely been touched. I found him on a large walkway across the main water-storage tank, going through the familiar morning routine I had come to know so well. The wide-open space was ideal for a full practice workout; I sat for a while, just watching, as he sparred against imaginary opponents, each kick, flip, or block flowing easily into the next, body and mind working in a perfect harmony of deadly skill and raw talent. Splinter would have been pleased, I decided.

I wondered what time it was, and a growl from my stomach assured me that several hours had passed. So I opened one of the tuna cans, and used my spoon from the previous night to ease the gnawing hunger. It wasn't the greatest breakfast in the world, but it was certainly better than nothing. I glanced over to find two more empty cans, and knew he'd already eaten. I washed it down with another bottle of water; then I suddenly realized that I had another pressing need- and nowhere to relieve it. That could be a problem.

By that time, he had finished his morning workout, and while I was looking around anxiously for some solution to my current delimma, he trotted up the steps to the catwalk and back to our little camp. "Morning!" He said cheerily, absently twirling one of his 'chucks. THIS was more like the fun-loving, light-hearted slacker I'd come to know. It seemed as if he had already forgotten everything that had happened the night before; I wondered if his inclination for living in the moment was a way of dealing with life's difficulties without loosing his sense of idealism and hope.

In contrast, Raph was the eternal pessimist, the cynical, jaded loner whose uncontrollable rage sometimes led him to leap headfirst into dangerous situations when others would hesitate. It almost bordered on a death-wish at times, yet it was that same passionate nature that made him so deadly in a fight. With his natural strength and toughness, he was the fiercest of the four- yet he was also the one who would be first to sacrifice himself for others, if need be. He dwelled on his mistakes, and seemed ashamed of who and what he was more than any of the others. He believed himself a failure for his inability to control his anger, and tried to keep everyone at arm's length to avoid hurting them- or being hurt.

Of the others, Leonardo appeared the most clear-headed, flexible, and accepting of life's trials- on the surface, at least. Yet I knew that he had his doubts on occasion, and that his dedication to Splinter's teachings- not to mention his over-developed sense of honor and discipline- could be a cause for friction when he tried to enforce them on his brothers whether they wanted it or not. They simply didn't place the same importance on those attributes that he did, and it often grated on him.

As for Donnie? Well, he was an enigma. When visiting with the boys, I only rarely saw him away from his gadgets and projects. He seemed perpetually tinkering with something, as if keeping his mind and hands busy was almost a psychosis with him. I had begun to believe he might even have OCD, though it was just as likely a defese against his difficulty with social interactions, a way of avoiding confrontations or rejections. I suspected it was both. Still, on the few occasions when he could be pulled away from his mechanical or techie interests, he could be witty, clever, and easy-going. He had a pacifist streak, that generally showed when he stepped in to stop fights between the others, wether a brewing rumble between Raphael and Leo, or Mikey's occasionally overboard pranks causing the other two to want to pummel him.

"So, you're in a good mood this moring! Any reason?" I asked. He nodded, and pointed up at the drain.

"Yup! It's been like that for an hour. I think it's safe to leave now. How about we get out of this noisy dump?" He replied cheerfully.

"Sounds great to me! Can't wait to get home and take a nice hot shower. But, can we find someplace I can- uh…you know?" I said, hoping he understood. "It's been HOURS since the last time I was anywhere near a bathroom!" I added, just in case it wasn't clear enough.

"Oh! Yeah- there's one here. Forgot to tell you earlier. The city installed one when they built this place- it's right next to the maintainance closet on the lower level, down there." He showed me the two doors on the far end of the main area. I had a sudden urge to strangle him for not mentioning it sooner. Instead, I just nodded, grabbed my clothes- they were nearly dry by then- and headed for the stairs with haste.

"Thanks! I'll get dressed while I'm in there, and then we can go!" I made a mental note to do my best to kick his rear in our next sparring match. How anyone could be so dense at times…..

When I was done and had returned to our "camp", he had already cleaned everything up and rolled the rest back up in the blankets. I tossed him the last one, and he tied it back up, then swung back up and replaced it in its hiding place. Then we set out on our way back through the tunnels, but this time, the water was only up to our ankles. I started to think the worst was behind us. Little did I know….

We had gone about twenty blocks- I knew because we passed a plaque reading 48th St.- when our luck took a turn for the worse. It began with an ominous sound in the distance, echoing through the passage. It sounded like squeaky machinery, or- no, more like….

"Mikey, do you HEAR that?" I asked, as it grew louder. Closer.

"Yeah. It sounds like-" He began; then his eyes went wide. "Uh-oh. We've got MAJOR problems! It's a horde of RATS!" We gotta get out of here- FAST!"

"Rats?!" I glanced around in a panic. I couldn't see them yet, but the sound was very close now.

"Yeah, and where there's RATS, there's probably-" He was suddenly interrupted by a raspy, slightly edgy voice.

"ME. Ah, it seems one of my old adversaries has trespassed in my domain. And you've brought a friend. How lovely! Greetings- you may call me the Rat King." I turned to face- a reject from a Universal monster movie who looked like a bad Mummy wanna-be. This town just kept getting weirder….

"Rat King?!" I turned to Michelangelo with a questioning look. "Is he for REAL?!"

"Yeah, and he's BAD news! Dude's got more than just a screw loose- he's missin' most of the bolts, too!" He whipped out his nunchaku, and stepped in front of me in a defensive stance.

I heard a squeak, and then felt something wet and furry crawl over my left foot. I shrieked. Couldn't help it- I've never been afraid of rodents, but when you suddenly feel one the size of a Chihuahua scuttling around your feet, it's instinct. And then I realized we were completely surrounded by them. Huge, New York sewer rats- the kind you hear stories about that no one really believes, until you SEE one. I had a horrible feeling that this guy was like a real-life Willard, and that Ben was lurking around somewhere amid the throng of hungry rattus specimens.

Then the guy in the cheesy- er, no pun intended- ragged bandage wraps turned his attention on me. A chill ran down my spine, as he started sniffing the air like a bloodhound. He stepped closer, ignoring Mikey completely, his gaze riveted on me. Oh, yes- THIS was certainly going to end well. NOT.

"Uh, Mikey? Why is he looking at me like that?!" I asked nervously, backing further away. I stepped on something small and soft, and heard an angry squeak. I jerked my foot away, as a rat scurried out from under me.

"Uh, I've got a pretty good idea, and it's NOT one you wanna hear!" My companion said over his shoulder, kicking a rat that had crept too close.

"Mmm, what a lovely scent you're wearing, my dear. You would make a fine Queen for my subjects- wouldn't she, my pets?" He gave me what he must have thought was a charming smile; then the rats swarmed toward us.

"What do we do? Splinter never trained me for this!" I yelped, kicking them away as fast as I could. But they just kept coming. Mike's 'chucks whirled in low arcs at every rat that dared come close, but there were too many.

"One word, babe- RUN!" He yelled, and spun on his heels, grabbing me as he took off at a dead run. I was almost yanked off my feet, and let out a yelp of surprise. But I could see his point. This was a bad situation, and we were vastly outnumbered. I didn't argue; I just follwed as well as I could. And that was when I understood what Donnie had said at the Hayden that day- as fast as I ran, I could barely keep up with him.

I looked back, and saw the swarm of furry killers scurrying after us with frightening speed. Their human "master" followed behind, stalking determinedly after us like a leering Jason Voorhees. I felt like I had just stepped into a horror movie.

"I hope you have a plan to get us out of this!" I called after my bold green knight. So far, it wasn't looking good.

"Uh- I'm open to suggestions!" He yelled back, as he led me into a side-tunnel. Great. If this wasn't the blind leading the blind, I didn't know what WAS.

"WHAT?! How are we going to get all these rats off our tails?! Metaphorically speaking." This was NOT how I wanted to go out- chased through a sewer by the Pied Piper of New York and his flea-ridden minions. I didn't have any better ideas, so we kept running. But we both knew it was only a matter of time before we tired and our furry pursuit caught up to us. And I didn't want to think about what would happen to us then. If we were lucky, the rats would finish us quickly. But I doubted it.

At last we came to a wide, open tunnel that Mikey seemed to recognize well. "Hey! I think we can take this to get away! There's a grate up to the subway from here- if we can get to it, we can go up and loose 'em on the tracks!"

We ran for the grate; he reached up to grab one end, and shoved hard to pop it open. Then he hoisted himself up through the hole. I heard the ominous squeaking of the rats as they reached me, and turned to glance behind me. They were already on us, leaping at me and trying to climb up my legs. I screamed as they bit and clawed, their large teeth cutting painfully through my jeans to leave deep bites. I began to worry- what if one of them was rabid?

Then their master appeared. I looked up, to see Michelangelo leaning down through the grate with one hand out. "Grab hold!" He yelled, but I was too busy swatting at the rats. I managed to stomp on a few, shuddering at the sound of their agonized squeaks in spite of the danger I was in. I'm an animal-lover, after all, and I hated having to kill them, but there was nothing else to do.

I finally reached up to take Mikey's hand, and he started to pull me up, but when I was half-way through the hole, I felt a hard yank from below. I looked down, to discover the lunatic rat-lover had hold of my legs. Mikey pulled again, but so did the creepy rat-guy- and he was bigger and had more leverage. I felt myself starting to slip out of Mikey's grasp. Great, now they were playing tug-o-war- and I was the rope!

"Let GO of her, Cheese-breath!" He growled, trying to get a better grip. I tried to kick at the bandage-faced weirdo, but he had my legs in a vice-like hold. Then his rats swarmed up over him to climb up me- biting at Michelangelo's arms. He lost his grip on me, and I fell back- down into the grasp of the so-called Rat King.

"Hello again, my lovely. My, but you're a fetching creature- and is that the scent of peanut butter I detect? Come, let me show you my palace. I assure you you'll be quite comfortable there. And say goodbye to your green friend; my loyal subjects will soon deal with HIM." He chuckled, and I had a sinking feeling this day was going to get worse. But I wasn't about to give up without a fight.

"Forget it, Rodent-brain, I'm NOT interested!" I shouted, and brought a knee up into his most vulnerable spot. He hissed in pain, but his hold on me didn't loosen. If anything, it tightened. Instead of the intended effect, it only seemed to make him angry, and he retaliated by grabbing me by the throat.

"Now, that wasn't very nice, my dear," he said, in a deceptively calm voice. It sent chills down my spine; clearly, this guy wasn't playing with a full deck. He squeezed, and I started to panic as he slowly choked me. I tried to fight back, using some of the tactics I had learned during my lessons, but I was still too inexperienced, and this man had obviously dealt with my friends before- he seemed to know just how to counter my feeble attempts to break free.

Then I heard Mikey shouting through the grate. "Get your filthy paws off her, Mickey!" Mickey?! I groaned inwardly. I'd have slapped him up-side that thick skull for that one, if I hadn't already been busy fighting our rat-obsessed foe. Thank goodness Splinter wasn't there, or we'd have had even BIGGER problems! I had already figured out that this lunatic was somehow controlling all the rats mentally, and it wasn't much of a stretch to realize that he could probably do the same to our teacher.

Mikey dropped back down, his 'chucks almost magically appearing in his hands once more, and made a leap toward the Willard wanna-be. But the Rat King simply pulled me in front of him, pinning my arms with one muscle-bound limb, and slid an old hunting knife from a sheath at his side. He held it up against my neck, and I had a sudden feeling of deja' vu. I wasn't sure which was worse, him trying to strangle me, or this, but at least I could breathe again. Mikey saw the threat, and aborted his attack in mid-air, instead sailing past us to land on the tunnel floor on his back. He flipped back up, and whirled to face his adversary with eyes narrowed.

"Don't make me laugh- mice are pathetic counterfeits compared to MY faithful followers. Destroy him, my pets!" My captor ordered, and the rats swarmed toward my would-be savior again. This was definitely NOT turning out to be a good day….

"Yeah? Okay, then you won't mind if I just call you Templeton!" Mikey replied, and began whacking away at every rat in reach. Meanwhile, the Rat King moved the arm holding me, and I suddenly felt a jab at the base of my neck that left me completely numb. I started to fall limp, but he threw me over one shoulder and began to stalk away, laughing as Michelangelo tried valiantly to fight off the dozens of blood-thirsty rodents. I managed to tilt my head up, and was horrified to see him slowly being overwhelmed by the horde of furry fiends. The last I saw of him was a blur of green leaping and kicking madly, his nunchaku whirling like twin propellers as he frantically tried to keep from being devoured. Then my insane captor rounded a bend in the tunnel, and all I saw was a shadow falling under a writhing mass. Then came the screams. My heart sank…..


	7. Chapter 7

Rescued

Things weren't looking so good; I was a captive prize of some nut with a rat fetish, who was carrying me off to who knows where to be his "bride". Slave was probably more like it, I thought ruefully as he slogged along through ankle-deep drainage water. I tried to pay attention to my surroundings, noting every junction plaque we passed in case I found a chance to escape. At last he came to an access tunnel with a ladder that led up to a large, vaulted room with large holding tanks in the middle and a wide walkway above, that was part of one of the city's treatment plants. I could see the filtration units that purified the water supply lining one wall, with pipes leading from the tanks, and then from the giant purifiers up to the streets above.

I still couldn't move- whatever he had done, it had left me nerveless. He carried me to an area enclosed in a high chain-link cage that held the main generators that powered the filters, and I felt another jab to my neck just before he tossed me in and locked the gate behind me. I landed hard on the floor, sending a few creative comments on his ansestry after him, before I realized I could move again. Then he was gone, and I was alone. I made a mental note to have Splinter or one of the boys teach me all about pressure points as soon as possible.

Thinking of them reminded me of what had happened to Mikey, and I slumped down, huddled on the floor with my knees pulled up and my head buried in my arms, mourning my would-be savior. I couldn't believe he was gone. And somehow, it felt like my fault- he had fallen to the rats while trying to defend me, after all. Yet he had been cracking wise to the end, always the optimist. I wiped away the tears, knowing he would have wanted me to be strong and not give up.

So I waited. I knew that rat-obsessed loon would come back for me sooner or later, and when he did, I would find a way to trick him into setting me free. At least, that was the idea. I couldn't climb out- the chain-link fence was ten feet high, with razor-wire at the top. I guess the city didn't want anyone getting in to tamper with the machinery. I was certain his royal nuttiness had a key to the lock on the gate, but until he came back, I was out of luck unless I wanted to be cut to ribbons trying to escape. That was something I wanted to avoid, especially since the rats would surely smell a trail of blood.

I sat on the floor, looking around for something that might help me- a hole or gap in the fence, loose links around the gate, or perhaps a discarded tool to use as a weapon- ANYHTING that would aid my escape! But I came up empty. And I waited. I shivered, my clothes still slightly damp from my drenching the day before, the cold floor making the dampness seem even more chill. At last, I heard the chittering and sqeaking that warned of my captor's approach. He moved toward me with smug confidence, a plate holding half of a hoagy sandwitch on it in one hand.

"I trust you've found the accommodations satisfactory, my pretty one? You must be hungry; would you like something to eat? If you behave yourself, I might even let you come out for a while. But I warn you, my pets will attack if you attempt to escape!" He said, pulling a small key from a pocket somewhere in his ragged attire.

"I'll just BET they would. Why are you keeping me here? What do you WANT?" I growled, rocketing up to my feet. I was ready for anything- I hoped.

"Isn't it obvious? Every king needs a queen! I've waited a long time to find a suitable bride to rule beneath the city by my side. Join me, and I will share the secrets of my power with you!" He replied with a wave of his hand. I was starting to agree with Michelangelo- this guy was a few crayons short of a box.

"No way, freak! You're NOT my type! I'd rather STARVE!" I snarled, kicking at the fence as he brought the plate close. He jerked back, inadvertently stepping on the tail of a rat. It squealed and instinctively bit its master.

"Rizzo! Get out of my way, fool!" He yelled, shoving the rodent aside. It sqeaked in protest, but skittered off. "Call ME a freak, will you?! What would you call that shell-back, then? HE is the only freak around here- or should I say, WAS. And just what IS your type then, hmm? Or would that be your dear departed green friend back there? Perhaps you prefer scales over fur?" He sneered at me, a malicious gleam in his eyes. I glared at him, understanding the implication he had just made. That was low.

"Go suck a lemon, creep. I'm going to make you regret what you did to him, I promise you that. And compared to you, HE'S normal!" I don't know why I felt the need to defend Mikey to this loony-bin escapee, but I wasn't about to let some delusional weirdo trash-talk one of my closest friends. Besides, I didn't like what he had just suggested about my relationship with Michelangelo. Somehow, his twisted assumption made me a little uncomfortable.

"In that case, I'll leave you to think about it a little longer, my pet. You will come to appreciate my offer, sooner or later. Until then, you can stay in that cage!" He turned away, laughing darkly. I sighed, realizing that I could be stuck in his lair for a long time.

It seemed like an eternity passed, while I alternately sat and paced my small prison, trying to think of a way out of this mess. I had no idea what time it was anymore, and now I was hungry, thirsty, and beginning to feel a little scared. But what could I do? If I tried to climb out, that nut would send his mini-minions to attack me. Eventually, when I had grown bored with sitting and pacing, I fell asleep, having nothing else to do.

I was awakened after some time had passed by a soft, light tap on my arm as I lay with my back against the fence. I turned to glance behind me, and was stunned by the sight that greeted me. Michelangelo knelt on the other side of the fence, one finger up in a warning to keep silent. He looked the worse for wear, with dozens of tiny wounds covering his arms and legs, but he was very much alive. I gasped softly, and looked around for my captor, afraid he might spot Mikey and dash my hopes of rescue.

"Mikey! Thank goodness you're alright! But I saw you fall- how did you get away from those rats in one piece?" I whispered in a low tone, hoping to avoid attracting attention from the lunatic rat-freak. "I heard you screaming…. I- I thought you were dead." I murmured, looking up at him with relief as I sat up.

"I don't know about one piece- those damn rats took a few chunks outta my hide- but it coulda' been worse." He whispered softly, one hand nervously rubbing the back of his neck as he made a fast glance around the large room for his foe. The so-called Rat King was sound asleep at the other end of the room on his "throne", which turned out to be an old, ripped recliner. He was snoring, with at least a dozen of his furry minions draped all over him.

"Hey- don't worry about me; it'd take a lot more than a bunch of stupid rats to take THIS turtle down!" He said quietly, grinning. "Anyway, you must've heard when those little buggers started bitin' in places best left unmentioned. That hurt like Hell! Lucky for me there was a cross-tunnel back there with enough water in it to jump in and drown most of the rats that were on me. I stayed under long enough to make sure they'd leave, then followed the stragglers here. And don't worry about any sentries- I already took care of 'em!" He grinned again, snickering wickedly in a low voice. He pulled a pair of shuriken out of his pouch, and held them up. I saw specks of blood on them.

"Great, but how are we going to get out of here?" I asked. I was anxious to leave this place behind like a bad memory.

"Hmmm. Lock-picking was never really my forte, and I left my picks back in the den. Where's the key?" He asked, looking around hopefully.

"He's got it; he was bringing some food over here earlier, but I told him where to shove it." I pointed over at the man snoring loudly across the room.

"Heh, not a problem- we're TRAINED to handle that sort of thing! Stealth, speed, and slight-of-hand, remember?" He winked, and slipped the stars back into his pouch with one hand while wiggling the fingers of the other in an unmistakably larcenous gesture.

"Mikey, be careful! I think it's in a pocket on his pants- but how are you going to get it without alerting those rats?" I hissed. I could almost predict how this was going to go, knowing him….

"Relax, babe! Got it covered." He gave a mock salute and rose, darting for the nearest cover as he made for the prize at the far end. I shook my head at his cocky bravado, wondering how he could be so certain when the chance of getting the key from that nut-case without waking either him or the furry fiends curled up with him was so small.

I watched as Michelangelo slipped along the edge of the room, keeping in the shadows and ducking from behind one piece of machinery to another, as swift and silent as a shadow himself. I had to admit, when the chips were down, my companion was good at what he did. But the true test would be getting the key from King Creepy. And I wasn't so sure the class clown of ninjutsu could pull it off.

At last he ducked down and darted over to the seat of his enemy's domain, crouching low as he crept slowly closer. He rubbed his hands together in anticipation, a determined expression in place of his usually cheerful façade. Was this more of the hidden side I'd seen before? Or was it merely years of training taking over to accomplish a vital goal? He studied his quarry for a long moment, noting every detail. He scowled when he noticed a rat lying curled on the pocket he sought.

Undaunted, the green-handed thief carefully scooped up the offending rodent, without even waking it, and moved it to the other side of its master's lap. He stole a quick glance my way, crossing both sets of fingers before he took a deep breath and slid his hand into the pocket. A moment later, it came back out, holding something small and silvery. He turned with a satisfied smirk and gave me a thumb's up, quickly retracing his path back to my prison.

"See? Piece of cake. Never doubt the 'Great Michelangelo', master of prestidigitation and pick-pocket extraordinaire!" He said, taking a bow. "Now, I shall free you from yon dungeon, milady, and then we boogie outta here." Great, he was back to the usual quips and corny antics. I was starting to wonder which was the real Mikey, and which was just a mask he wore. I wished he would make up his mind; I was getting confused trying to figure him out.

"Pick-pocket extraordinaire? Should I ask how you learned that skill? On second thought, never mind. I probably don't want to know. Would the 'Great Micehlangelo' please just hurry up? That guy gives me the creeps! And keep your voice down!" I hissed, reminding him of the rodent army not far away. He stole a fast look toward the rodent ruler, and nodded as he lipped the key into the lock.

"Right. Sorry. Sometimes I get a little carried away. And I learned it when I tried my hand at magic tricks a few years ago. Comes in handy once in a while." He muttered softly.

"Yeah, I noticed. A little less theatrics and a little more rescue would be nice, though. And why does it not surprise me that you were into stage magic?" I whispered, breathing a sigh of relief as he opened the gate. It was good to be free again. "Now let's get the heck out of here before he-" I began, but I heard an ominous shout from behind.

"Huh- what's that? Hey! How did you escape my followers? Get them, my faithful subjects!" The Rat King- I was starting to call him Willard in my head now, simply because it seemed the most fitting name- had awakened, and was standing before his "throne", with a dozen of his beady-eyed pets clinging to him. Swell, I thought. Just when I thought we were almost clear, Murphy's Law kicked in. Naturally.

I turned to glare at Mikey. "'Piece of cake', huh? I'm going to make sure they carve that on your tombstone!" I spat sarcastically. "Let me guess- run?" I asked. His answer was an emphatic nod. We both took off like the proverbial bat out of Hell, and I followed as he led me back out of the treatment station. We ran back the way I been brought in, down the ladder into the main sewer-system, and kept going until we got to the grate we'd tried to escape through earlier.

I was surprised when he ran right past it, pulling me along behind him. "Wait, I thought we were going to use the subway to get way?" I asked, confused.

"Nah, I got a better idea- we take that side-passage I was in earlier! The water's too deep for the rats to follow us! Remember what I taught you about breathing? Get ready to use it!" He tugged me into a smaller pipeline, and I soon discovered that it led at a downward angle to a lower tunnel that was still quite full. There was dank-smelling water nearly up to our chests, flowing slowly along the passage.

"Oh, you have GOT to be kidding," I said in disgust. "I still haven't dried out completely from the LAST swim!"

"Would you rather stay and fight off those rats again?" He asked. That shut me up.

"Good point," I conceded.

"How good a swimmer are you?" He asked, eying me with what appeared to be a thoughtfully critical gaze.

"About  
average, I guess," I replied, shrugging. I could hear the rats behind me in the tunnel. They were catching up to us, and fast.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Grab hold, and HANG ON this time!" He said, pulling my arms around his neck. I took a deep breath as he dove in, carrying me with him. I closed my eyes as we hit the water, trying to focus on letting my heart slow, the need for air less urgent. Mind over body.

I don't know how long we stayed under as he swam with long, powerful strokes through the pieline; finally, I tapped his shoulder and pointed up. Lasting breath or not, I couldn't hold it any longer. I felt him turn his head and nod, and a moment later, we broke the surface. I took a deep, long breath, and let go as he stood up. I had no idea where we were, but anywhere was better than the home of Mr. Rattatoulie back there.

Fortunately, Mikey knew exactly where we were- it never ceased to amaze me how easily the boys could navigate through those maze-like tunnels without a map or even a compass- so the rest of our trek back to the den was uneventful. I was relieved when we finally turned a corner and came to the familiar passage that led to their home. He opened the large pipline-cap that closed off the section of sewers they called home, and we ducked inside gratefully. I was glad to finally be back in a dry and safe place after the cold, wet, and rat-infested adventure we'd just gone through. As we entered the well-worn but cozy living room, I decided I never wanted to see another rat again.

"Michelangelo! Where have you been, my son? Why did you not call us?" I groaned mentally as I saw Splinter rise from his seat in a beat-up old recliner near the television. The others jumped up from the sofa instantly, all clamoring at once for an explanation.

"Where WERE you two?! We were worried!" "What took you two so long?! What'd you do, stop over in Jersey and get lost?" That came from Raph. "We tried reaching you on your turtle-com a dozen times! Why didn't you answer?" Trust Donnie to bring that up. I sighed- this was NOT going to be pleasant.

"Uh, yeah- about that… I kinda' lost it somewhere out in the tunnels. We had to take the long way cause the regular route was flooded, and ended up swimming under half of Midtown. It got so bad we had to hole up in our old lair under the Castle overnight. I guess it fell out somewhere on the way there. Sorry." He gave Donatello an apologetic shrug, his gaze on the floor at his feet.

"You LOST it?!" Don cried in shock. "How COULD you?! Do you have any idea how hard it is to replace those things?! I gave Raphael the last spare when his got smashed fighting those Purple Dragons with Casey a few months ago. I don't have parts for a new one!" My jaw dropped; I'd never seen Donnie so steamed before! He stalked off through the kitchen into his lab, spouting a string of angry curses that made my ears turn red, before he slammed the door shut behind him.

That's when Leo chimed in. "Wait- why did you go the long way? Why not just use the garage entrance? That would have been a lot easier. And why do you look like you got chewed up and spit out by a wood-chipper?" My head whipped around to stare at Mikey in disbelief. He had forgotten to mention that option….

"Aw, MAN! I totally forgot about it! Oops, guess I kinda' spaced on that one. Sorry. And, uh, did I mention we ran into the Rat King on the way back after the water went down?" He turned to me and grinned sheepishly. It didn't work. After everything that had happened, this was the last straw. I exploded.

"How do you just FORGET about something like that?! We could have avoided that whole mess, and I wouldn't have gotten soaked- TWICE, I might add- and nearly drowned! What kind of IDIOT….! Oh, wait- that's YOU. My God, I can't believe we went through all that for NOTHING!"

"The Rat King?! What happened?!" Leonardo and Raphael exclaimed at once. They stared at us, as if unsure if he was joking. I ignored their questions, whirling on Mikey furiously.

I was absolutely livid. He seemed to shrink down, looking more and more shamefaced as I continued my tirade. "I was carried off by a nut with a rat-fetish, and spent the night nearly naked on a hard metal floor with nothing but a blanket, in a cold, dark pump-room with nothing to eat but peanut-butter and tuna. And oh, yes! I've been bitten by a bunch of flea-ridden rats that probably gave me rabies or something! And all that just because you FORGOT?! How do you manage to screw up something as simple as taking another way down?" I couldn't think of anything else to scream at him, so I did the next best thing- I let out a frustrated, angry growl, and slapped the back of his head. Hard.

"OWW! Geez, I SAID I was SORRY!" He protested dejectedly, rubbing the spot I'd just smacked. "It's not like I MEANT for that stuff to happen. Besides, I got us out of it, didn't I?" Wrong answer.

"Got us out?! It's YOUR fault we got into that situation in the first place!" I snarled. Then I turned to the others. "Sorry we missed practice yesterday- AND this morning. Seems SOMEONE had a mental misfire." I looked over at Splinter questioningly. "Are you sure he didn't fall on his head as a baby?" He said nothing, but merely sighed, shaking his head as he left the room, and silently shuffled off through the bedroom commons area to his own quiet sanctuary beyond. I had the feeling he had just washed his hands of the situation.

"Didn't MEAN to, huh?" Raph remarked cynically, folding his arms. "You sure you weren't just tryin' to skip out on practice again? Wouldn't be the first time. Awful convenient that you missed TWO lessons. Not to mention spent a whole night ALONE with a girl. Somethin' goin' on there, little bro?" He raised one brow-ridge skeptically, casting a sideways glance at his sibling.

Michelangelo suddenly looked stricken, eyes wide, and his gaze shot from Raph to me and back. "What?! NO! It was just a stupid mistake! Dude, you are seriously twisted if you think I'd go to all that trouble just to skip a couple of lessons. That's totally uncool, bro."

"Uh-huh. Sounds like somebody's getting' a little defensive, eh, Leo?" Raph replied, turning to his older brother with a knowing smirk. I had a vague suspicion he wasn't talking about playing hooky when he made that comment.

"EXCUSE me, but I AM right here, you know!" I said, rolling my eyes in exasperation. I hated it when they ignored me like that.

Leo just shook his head. "I don't know, Raph- I mean he DOES know there's no POSSIBLE way that could ever work!" He gave their youngest sibling a hard stare, and I somehow got the feeling it was meant to remind Mikey of some private matter that they didn't want to discuss openly.

"Hey! Someone mind filling me in on what the heck you guys are talking about?" I shouted, finally getting their attention. They traded glances, and then suddenly all clammed up. Mikey looked slightly embarrassed, Leo turned away with a decidedly exaggerated expression of innocence on his face- which had turned a much darker shade of green- and Raphael cleared his throat as if he had something caught in it.

"Uh, ask Don. He can explain it to you better than us. Let's just say there are some things we don't talk about around anyone outside the family. PERSONAL things." Raph said at last, when the other two failed to answer. I turned to his brothers, and was only more puzzled when Leo only nodded. Clearly, he wasn't going to elaborate.

"Yeah- REAL personal," Mikey added, and left it at that.

Just then, the door to Donatello's workshop and lab swung open with a bang, and he came stalking out through the kitchen into the living room with a duffle bag slung over one shoulder and a sullen scowl on his face. He glared at Mikey, a dark growl deep in his throat the only sound he made, as he stormed right past all of us heading for the exit. We all turned to stare at him curiously. He had his bo tucked into its usual place on his back.

"Where are you going?" Leo asked pointedly.

Donnie turned with a grimace, and his tone positively dripped with acid. "Well, since SOMEONE lost his cell, it looks like I'm going to be spending the next few days hunting down parts to make a new one. Might as well get started now- it's not like I had anything BETTER to do!"

No one made a move to stop him; Mikey started after him and placed one hand on Don's shoulder in apology, and a look passed between them that needed no words. Then Donnie sighed and shook his head, turning away from his brother.

"You mind if I go with you?" I asked, and he turned back for a moment, with a curious expression.

"I- I GUESS it would be okay- but why? I'm just going out hunting for spare parts behind the Radio Shack over on W. 19th St. Nothing YOU'D be interested in." He shrugged, but his remark dug at me, as if it was none of my business, or as if it was something I wouldn't be of any help with.

"What makes you say that? How do YOU know I wouldn't? It sounds like it could be fun!" I answered, staring him down.

Donatello looked surprised, but quickly capitulated. "O-kaaay. In that case, you can be my look-out to make sure I'm not seen. After what happened at Techno-Dyne, I'm not taking any chances!"

"Good idea," Leo agreed. "Just be careful. We don't need anyone getting lost again." He shot a pointed look at Mikey, who clenched his fists and grimaced in frustration. Mikey ignored Leo's jab, and instead sent a sharp glare toward Donnie, as though his brother had said or done something to anger him.

I followed Donnie out, nodding to Leo and Raph as we passed. Mikey tried to catch my gaze, but I pointedly avoided meeting his eyes. Once outside the den, I turned to Donnie, curiosity burning me up inside. He glanced over, seeing the pensive look on my face, and sighed. "Okay, go ahead- I know what you're going to ask." He said, grimacing. "It's about what Leo and Raph said in there, isn't it?"

"How do you know what they said? You were in your workshop!" I asked, puzzled. I knew he was smart, but was he psychic, too?

He chuckled, turning to me with a positively wicked gleam in those almost golden eyes. "Oh, I have my ways," he said cryptically. "The guys don't know it, but I keep tabs on EVERYTHING that goes on around here."

I stared at him, gaping at the admission he'd just made. "You have the placed bugged, don't you?!" I said, slightly shocked. I probably shouldn't have been, since he was such a tech-geek and always seemed to be tinkering with something. To him, it was just another challenge to see what he could create, and what he could do with it.

"Don't tell the others- Leo would have kittens if he knew- and Raph would go postal on me!" He said, giving me a cocky grin. I was half-tempted to turn around and do just that after his crack about not being interested. Instead, I decided to hold it over him. I returned his devious grin with one of my own.

"Fine, nerd-boy. But you OWE me for keeping quiet. To start, I want you to cut out the 'you can't or wouldn't do this because you're a girl/human' crap. I may not be a genius or a physically-enhanced mutant, but I am just as capable as any of you guys of doing anything you can do." I stared him down, until he finally had to turn away in defeat. I had him, and we both knew it.

"Deal. I suppose I should have realized you were tougher than you look. Anyone who's willing to face off with Tin-grin and his goons with us the way you've done must have a lot of backbone."

"That's me!" I said, chuckling. "Cahones of steel, baby!" He sniggered, and I knew we'd come to an understanding. "So…. Just what WERE they talking about back there? What did Leo mean about something not working? And what was up with that comment Raphael made?"

He turned to me with an upraised brow as we strolled through the unused section of sewers toward the main system. "Uh, well, it's- COMPLICATED." He looked suddenly very anxious, and I noticed him slipping one hand into the pouch of his belt, and pulling out a shuriken. He absently fingered it and turned it over, almost unconsciously. It was a nervous habit, one that only showed when he was uncomfortable with something.

"Okay; I need to stop at my place and take a shower and change into something that's not soaking wet, so we can take the van and you can tell me on the way. What do you say?" I said, pretending not to see his twitchy fingers fiddling with the star.

At last he nodded reluctantly, and we turned toward the tunnel that led up to the abandoned garage that housed their garish green and yellow van. I wondered why they had given it such an unusual paint-job, when they were always going on about avoiding attention. But that was a question for another time. For now, I was more interested in what the others had been hedging about.

"So?" I prompted, hoping to jog an explanation from him.

"Okay, how can I put this? Um.… How much do you know about anatomy?" He asked sharply, a peculiar expression that seemed part curiosity, part embarrasment, and part- amusement?

"I took a semester of it last year before I graduated, and I still remember some of it; why?" I wondered where he was going with this, but I was beginning to suspect I might not want to know. "What exactly are we discussing here?" I shot him an appraising look, one brow raised as I brushed my bedraggled hair out of my face. I was going to need some major conditioning after this last excapade.

"I don't suppose you are familiar with the structural differences between humans and, say- turtles? Hypothetically speaking." He said, still clearly dancing around the subject. I sighed in frustration. This was getting nowhere fast.

"Which differences, specifically? Are you talking about skeletal structure, or something else? Can you BE any more vague, Donnie? Just spit it out, already!" I said impatiently. Why was he being so evasive? Why were ANY of them?

He grimaced, and his normally pea-green face went an odd shade of olive that I suddenly realized was their equvilant of blushing. "Specifically? Reproduction and, er, plumbing." Okay, now I was SURE this was something I'd end up regretting having asked. "See, most people have this erroneous belief that members of order Testudines are- let's say 'under-endowed' in certain areas. What they don't realize is that it's really just the opposite. After all, they have to compensate for the shell getting in the way of mating, not to mention that females are usually bigger in most species. You follow so far?"

I took a moment to digest that. If I was hearing him right, what he was really saying was- I paused as we reached the ladder up to their van. "Are we actually having this discussion?" I asked.

"Well, you DID ask!" He answered matter-of-factly. I groaned.

"Yeah, I guess I DID. So what does that mean, exactly? Hypothetically speaking?" I asked, and almost wished I hadn't.

"You know that rather crude metaphor 'hung like a horse'? Considering proportionate sizes, it should really be-" He began, only to be abruptly stopped when I clamped my hand over his mouth.

"DON'T say it. I think I'm starting to get a pretty good idea of where that's going. But what does this have to do with what they were saying back there?" Okay, so I was getting a crash course in comparative anatomy, but I still had no clue what was going on. And I was starting to believe that maybe that was a good thing.

Don stared at me incredulously. "You mean you don't know?" He asked, clearly surprised.

"If I did, I wouldn't be asking." I stared at him pointedly, waiting for the answer.

"It presents some- er, problems for us. Specifically, the fact that we're just NOT compatible with anyone else, structurally speaking. That's just how it is." He shrugged and began climbing up to the abandoned garage; I could understand how that might cause problems for them in a relationship, but I still wasn't seeing why the others had brought it up.

"And your POINT is?" I asked, getting impatient. I started to climb the ladder after him, my mind awhirl with all he'd said so far. Why didn't he just get to the point already? Clearly, I was missing something here.

Donnie pushed open the grate and hopped out onto the concrete floor of the mostly empty building, leaning down to grasp my hand and pull me up. He grabbed an old battered fedora and a long trench coat from a rack on the wall, tugging them on to hide the most obvious signs of his mutant origins, before unlocking the vehicle. We both hopped in, and he used a remote to activate the homemade door-opener as he started the engine. It still surprised me that my friends could even drive at all, considering the conspicuous fact that they couldn't even apply for a licence!

"Well?" I asked again, wondering why he'd gone quiet. The old van eased out onto Canal Street, not far from the Bowery. He sighed impatiently, and tapped on the wheel, shaking his head in annoyance. Something had his pants in a bunch- metaphorically speaking.

"What, did you think we wouldn't figure it out? We've all noticed the way he's been acting. It's so obvious!" He glanced over at me, and frowned when he saw the confused look I gave him. Then he cocked his head slightly, and it seemed as if an idea struck inside his ever-active mind. "You really don't know, DO you?" He sounded surprised by his own statement, as though he had assumed I already knew what he was talking about.

"Know WHAT?!" I nearly shouted. I was beyond exasperated at that point. "Other than being his usual air-headed self by forgetting about the garage, he seemed fine to me! Maybe even a little more responsible than usual- at least once things got serious. Heck, aside from my getting kidnapped by that crazy rat-freak and almost drowning, it wasn't even all that bad. We were pretty bored, to be honest. Bored enough that he even offered to teach me some of those breathing exercises you guys practice."

"Not my place to tell. Maybe you should ask Mikey. It's HIS problem, after all. Then again, I doubt he'd ever admit to it. Or better yet, why don't you look through that sketchbook of his sometime? You just might be surprised by what you find in there."

And with that, he clammed up, and no amount of verbal nudging on my part would make him budge on his silence. We made it to my building without incident, where I went up the normal way while he took the fire escape and met me inside. I'd taken to leaving the living room window unlatched so they could come and go freely, so he was already at the door when I opened it. After a shower and a change of attire, we took the van and made our way to the alley behind the shop he'd mentioned.

We chatted as he delved into the dented metal bin that held the store's refuse, searching for the necessary components for a replacement for the lost com-unit. He pointedly avoided any further discussion of our earlier conversation, and I had the feeling that he was uncomfortable with the subject in general, or perhaps simply talking to a female about such matters. But my mind kept going back to his cryptic suggestion of looking over Mikey's sketches. Was there something in them that would shed light on what the boys had been unwilling to tell? I thought back to Raph's off-hand remark about spending the night alone together. A glimmer of an idea came to me, but surely it was just his imagination at work- either that, or a crude jab at his sibling, teasing him for what might have been a prime opportunity to make a move, if it had been anyone else. I knew better than to take it as a serious accusation. It was just Raphael being his cynical, sarcastic, and occasionally crude self. Wasn't it?

Donatello spent nearly a half hour digging around in the dumpster, pulling out various broken or incomplete electronic gadgets and toys, searching for salvageable parts. By the time he'd finished, the bag he'd brought was nearly half full, with everything from remote-control toys to computer components. I was both amazed and a little shocked at the resourcefulness- and lack of propriety- of my companion. I'd seen him take random electronic boards, wires, chips, and the like, and build some fairly impressive equipment fom such detritus. His ability to cobble together a working- and often sophisticated- computer from cast-off parts, or to create some new gadget or piece of gear from a collection of junk always amazed me. The only thing that bothered me was how little concern he seemed to have for the ethical or legal repercussions of his rummaging. I wasn't sure if it was theft, since it was technically no longer anyone's property once discarded, but where did one draw the line? At best, it was still invasion of property- or privacy, depending on how one looked at it.

When we got back to the sewer-den, I stopped cold. You could have cut the tension in the living room with a knife. I glanced around the room, wondering why the others had gone so quiet. I could tell something big had transpired between them, but whatever it was, they were keeping it to themselves. Soon enough, it was time for my daily lesson, and I was hardly surprised to find that Master Splinter had left Leonardo in charge for the day. He's been doing that a lot lately, and I can't help wondering if he's starting to feel his age. As rats go, he's positively ancient. I know the boys worry about him, Leo more than any of them. He's always been the closest to their surrogate father, looking to him for guidance in all things.

The rest of the day went by without incident, and when I finally returned home that night, I was weary in both mind and body. Leonardo had worked us all to the bone- Michelangelo most of all- until we were so exhausted we could barely stand. But even after I went home, I couldn't stop thinking about what Donnie had said. Something fishy was going on, and I was determined to get to the bottom of it.

The next few days were frustrating, and only made my suspicions stronger. Michelangelo seemed determined to beg forgiveness, yet every time he tried to catch me alone to talk, the others would "happen" to get in the way. Raphael was the worst. He plopped down between us on the sofa when I joined them for our weekly "movie night". He grabbed Mikey for his partner during practice, leaving me to face off with Donnie or Leo. I didn't mind, of course, as they were both good sparring partners. But it started to get annoying when Raph sat down between us at the table every morning while I joined them for breakfast before the morning routine. I'd taken to getting up early and feeding Trouble, then taking something down for breakfast to share with the guys. I was starting to think of their den as a second home.

The other two were almost as bad. There seemed to be a conspiracy at work, aimed at keeping Mikey from talking to me. I was fine with that, since I still hadn't quite forgiven his asinine blunder during the rainstorm. Okay, I know it was a bit cruel to make him suffer, but I felt so disgusted with him for that fiasco that I just wasn't ready to let it go.

After almost a week had passed, he finally caught me coming down late one morning, while the others were already chowing down on pancakes, eggs, and bacon- courtesy of Mikey's culinary skills. He had already set a plate down for me at the table, and was waiting for me at the entrance.

"We need to talk," He said, stepping in front of me as I started to move around him toward the kitchen. "Now." I gave him a long look; this was a tone I'd never heard him use before.

"I'm not really sure there's anything to talk about," I said icily. "Unless you can give me one good reason not to punch your lights out!" I was vaguely aware of three pairs of eyes peering in from the kitchen doorway, where they had all stopped eating to see what was going on. "Do you have any idea what it was like to be man-handled by that creep? Or to slog through god-only-knows-what up to my chest, only to almost drown, and then spend the entire night shivering in my skivvies just because YOU made a mistake?! What were you THINKING?!"

He winced, then turned away, speaking softly, in a tone that sounded almost broken. "Look, I'm really sorry, okay? I screwed up- I GET that. It's just…. I'm not used to havin' anyone else depend on me to make decisions. I'm usually the one followin' everyone else. I'm not good at bein' a leader, or tryin' to deal with things on my own. I know you're mad, but I was doin' the best I could! I was just tryin' to get us home safe- but I'm not perfect, okay! You don't know what it's like, when everyone treats you like an idiot that can't do anything on his own. Pretty soon, you start to belive it. And then when you screw up, it just proves it. I was tryin' to do what I thought was best. I'm just sorry it wasn't good enough."

I didn't say anything at first. I didn't know how to respond. I realized he'd been hurt by my angry tirades, and the way I'd treated him- just like everyone else had done. I suddenly felt horrible for having done exactly what he seemed to hate so much. I sighed, and stepped around to look him in the eyes.

"No, I guess I'm the one who should apologize. You made a mistake, but so did I. I didn't even realize I was treating you the same way everyone else always has. I guess I was just expecting too much- you seemed so confident, it made me feel like you were in control. I just…. I trusted your judgement. I felt like I could depend on you, and then suddenly it seemed like you'd let me down. I was angry because I felt disappointed. I wanted so much to believe you knew what to do. What happened wasn't really your fault. I'm sorry I yelled at you. I overreacted, and I- just want to say thank you. In spite of everything, we still pulled through- because of you."

I glanced toward the kitchen again, and in a flash, three curious teens disappeared around the corner of the doorway. I shook my head in annoyance. I'd forgotten how nosy family could be. Add in the fact that they were a bunch of bored, socially deprived teens, and that made for a complete lack of privacy. I decided it was time to nip this in the bud, and turned to head for the kitchen. Mikey let out a long sigh from behind me.

"So, does this mean we're friends again?" He asked hopefully.

I glanced back and smiled back at him. "We still WERE. But just TRY using your head BEFORE we get into trouble next time! You could have saved us both a LOT of headaches!"

He returned the request with an embarrassed shrug, grinning sheepishly. "Hey, at least with me around, you know life won't be dull!" He chuckled, and I just rolled my eyes at the corny joke. Then again, it HAD been quite an adventure….

A few days later, I had lunch with April while we were on assignment for a series of special reports on the best pubs in the city. St. Patricks was just a couple of days away, and everyone was painting the town green, so to speak. The shamrocks and faux-Irish accents were popping up all over town, along with folks getting ready for the yearly St. Patty's Day parade. I'll say one thing- New York is one city that knows how to throw a party.

While we were chatting over gyros in our favorite deli, a tall man in torn jeans and an old red tank-tee with raven hair to his shoulders and the bluest eyes I'd ever seen on a male walked into the deli, looked around for a moment, and then strode- well, swaggered, really- over to our table. He grabbed a chair, turned it backwards, and sat straddling it with his arms propped on the back.

"Hiya, cupcake! Miss me? And HELL-OH, foxy lady! What's shakin', toots?" He said. I rolled my eyes. Great. This particular specimen of the opposite gender was on the short list of the last people I wanted to see right now. Something about April's boyfriend just grated on my nerves.

"Casey Jones. Do you even know what manners ARE?" I asked, annoyed. I'd only met the man a couple of time before at Channel Six, and I still couldn't understand what she saw in this Neanderthal throw-back. Must be his looks, I thought, eying the muscle-bound oaf.

"Hey, do I look like some high-society pansy? I'm just an average guy from Brooklyn, y'know?" He shrugged, snagging a potato chip from April's plate. He gave me a look that practically dared me to continue the game of verbal tag, and popped the chip in his mouth.

"Casey, play nice," April purred sweetly, slapping his hand as he went for another chip.

"More like an average gorilla," I shot back. "Does the zoo know you're out of your cage?" I gave him an icy smile. He looked ready to jump across the table at me, but April held him back with one hand, sighing loudly.

"Can you two TRY to get along?!" She asked, glaring at both of us.

"Uh, yeah, sorry hon. Just forgot where I was for a second there." He looked chagrined, and tapped one hand on the table idly.

"Sure, no problem- as long as he stops calling me 'foxy lady' and 'toots'. I DO have a name, you know." I stared him down coolly, and he shrugged and looked away. One of the things I've learned from hanging around the boys is how to back someone down with just a look. Sometimes just knowing how to intimidate an opponent is all it takes to avoid a fight and win a confrontation.

"Yeah, okay. Didn't mean nothin' by it. Just bein' friendly." He turned to April, and asked how her day had been.

"The usual. Interviewing people about their favorite pubs, doing restaurant reviews to find the best Irish food, that sort of thing. I really wish Charles would stop giving me these fluff pieces. He knows I'd rather be doing REAL news!" She sighed, clearly frustrated by the lack of meaningful assignments. I decided to cheer her up a little.

"You mean like chrome-plated lunatics breaking into high-tech labs?" I asked jokingly. "That enough excitement for you?"

"Huh? Did I miss something? What's that old human Ginsu wanna-be up to NOW? I've been out of town for a few weeks, up at the old farm. Ain't even talked to the guys lately." Casey frowned, perking up. I glanced at him sharply, wondering just how much he knew.

"April, has he met your OTHER friends?" I asked pointedly, raising a brow. She was about to answer when Casey interrupted.

"You talkin' about the ones no one talks about in public? The, uh, 'Tortuga Brothers'?" He said, glancing around as he leaned closer, lowering his voice. Then he pulled back, and nodded. "Yup. I do patrols twice a week with Raphael, and I helped Don build that van of theirs. Still think we should've toned it down on the paint-job. Looks like a hippie bus."

I laughed. "Sure- if the hippies were into high-end surveillance and heavy artillery! I've seen army vehicles with less armor and weaponry!"

"So, you said you wanted to talk about something important?" April prompted, changing the subject quickly. She glanced around nervously to see if anyone had heard our discussion. "That IS why you wanted to meet us here, isn't it?"

"Oh! Right. Word on the street is the Turks and the Purple Dragons are gettin' ready for a major rumble. I talked to Angel, and she says there's a turf war brewin'. Could be something the Green Brigade might want to check out."

"A gang war? Now THAT'S news!" April said excitedly. "Did she say when? Maybe I can get Mr. Pennington to let me cover the story!" She was anxious to do some real reporting, and I didn't blame her. I was inclined to agree, especially since it meant I'd be going with her, which would help my career, too.

We talked for a little while, and for once, I almost found myself liking Casey, once he turned serious and stopped acting like an obnoxious nine-year-old trapped in a man's body. He wasn't as much of a macho pig as I'd believed, though I still thought he could use a few lessons in tact and sensitivity. I was more surprised to learn that he was one of the few people besides myself and April who actually knew of the turtles' existence. The fact that he had kept it a secret for so long increased my respect for the man- not that it had been very high to begin with. But maybe April saw something in him I didn't.

Later that evening down in the lair, I filled the guys in on what he's told us. As expected, Leo was all for checking out the rumors. We still didn't know when the brawl was going to go down, but that was a matter for further investigation. So we made plans to go out on a patrol- one which Leonardo decided I should be in on. I was secretly elated, for it meant he was ready to accept me as a part of the team. That meant more than I was willing to admit openly, for it was one step closer to getting what I really wanted- justice.


	8. Chapter 8

Michelangelo's Journal: Pt 3

I've been tryin' to avoid this part, 'cause I didn't want to think about what happened, but I guess I can't put it off forever. See, things were goin' okay for a while- Orlene was gettin' better every day, learnin' faster than we ever expected. Leo finally admitted how well she was doin', and things had sort of settled down. Then everything went sour.

It started because of the rain. It was the wettest spring we'd seen in a long time, and the tunnels outside our lair were flooded more often than not. Downside #1 of sewer-living: when it rains, sooner or later, you're gonna' get drenched. That's why we always stay in the abandoned parts that have been closed off. Nobody wants to wake up in the middle of the night to find their bed floating off like Noah's Ark.

She called us up one afternoon during a really heavy storm, to say that she was coming down for practice, and needed help getting in. Bein' the gallant and chivalrous dude I am, I volunteered to go get her- mostly 'cause it got me out of the den for a while and away from Mr. Groucho- er, that's Raph, obviously- and his grumbling about not bein' able to go out on roof-patrol with our buddy Casey. I swear, if Casey were a girl, they'd be the perfect couple. They're so much alike it's scary sometimes. Okay, and I'm not ashamed to admit I wanted another chance to see her without the others around, even if it was just for the trip down. Lately I'd been finding any excuse I could just to be around her. I guess you could say I was twitter-pated in a MAJOR way. Good thing we're cold-blooded, or I'd be gettin' hot under the collar every time we paired up to spar. Heh, sometimes full-contact grapple-hold demos can be FUN!

Unfortunately, by the time I met up with her, the rain top-side had picked up, and the run-off was starting to rise faster than the system could carry it. The usual way in was flooded, so I took the first route that came to mind. That's where I went wrong- instead of takin' the garage entrance down, I decided to take the long way around, up Broadway. I totally forgot about the garage route. Hey, I never claimed to be perfect. Problem was, that section started gettin' high, too. In other words, we were LITERALLY up shit creek without a paddle- or even a boat! Well, it was just dirty rain water, but you get the idea.

I was startin' to get worried, since we didn't have many options left; I couldn't take her back through the usual route, so we took the tunnel under the 65th Street Transverse across Central Park, then up through the pipes to our old den in the pump-station under the castle by Lake Belvedere. It was all well and good until we hit that last drop-off, and she lost her grip on me, hit her head on the edge of the holding tank, and went under. I didn't waste any time; I just went down after her and hauled her up on the nearest walkway. Good thing Leo's not the only one of us that knows CPR, or she'd have been a goner. And WHAT did I get as thanks? A left hook right on the end of my beak! SOME gratitude…. Well, I guess ya' can't win 'em all.

It wasn't so bad, though. We had a long talk while we were stuck in there waitin' for the pipes to clear out so we could go home, and I really got to know her better. I even shared something I'd never told ANYONE. Don't know why I did that. Maybe it's 'cause she actually listens to me. No one else ever did that.

After a while, she fell asleep, and I TRIED to, but all I could do was lay awake listening to those damn pumps, thinkin' about the last time we were there. I still remember that day. Well, that's not surprising, I guess- it was only a year before. It had started out as just another day, nothin' goin' on- just chillin' with a good flick on the boob-tube. Whoever came up with that name must've had skin-flicks in mind, but whatever. I was watchin' Farris Bueller; I love that movie. Leo was working on his kattas, as usual, and Raph was on the barbells while Donnie was- doin' whatever it is he does when he's in his workshop.

That's when we heard the noise out on the stairwell from the surface. I muted the movie, Raph dropped his weights- loudly- and Leo made a dive for the door. Donnie was too busy welding to notice, so I chucked an empty soda can at him and made a cut sign when he looked up. He shut it down, while Leo signed for us all to be quiet. Then we heard the voices.

"Hurry up, Dave- let's get this over with. This job really gives me the creeps," said a rough-sounding voice. Then the doors opened. We didn't even wait for Leo's signal to disappear- we just DID it. Even Sensei scurried off into the shadows and up a pipe to hide.

"Scared of a few little rats, Peter?" Someone else chuckled, shining a flashlight around; we watched as two guys in city sanitation uniforms walked in. Our home was bein' invaded, and we all waited for the other shoe to drop.

"It's not the rats that scare me- it's the OTHER things that are down here. Kevin from the downtown crew has seen some weird shit down in these sewers. He told me he saw a big lizard-man or something a few months ago. Said it looked like an alligator on two legs!"

"Man, don't listen to him! He's pullin' your leg! Lizard-men, ha! Anyway, the city doesn't care WHAT'S in the sewers, they just want to get this station back on-line." Said the one named Dave. Then he saw all our furniture and stuff scattered everywhere, and gaped. "What the F-?!" He exclaimed, surprised.

"Looks like someone set up camp in here," said the one he called Peter. "Maybe several someones, from the looks of this place. What IS all of this?!" He had turned his flashlight on Donnie's workshop area, with the half-torn-apart engine from our van he'd been rebuilding, the electronic parts he's always tinkering with, and all sorts of chemistry stuff, microscopes- I realized it probably looked like some sort of terrorist hideout, and now we were in BIG trouble.

"Set up camp, my ass! This looks like someone set up a friggin' HOUSE down here!" Dave replied, shinin' his light over our living room- where the TV was still on. I face-palmed. "And what's with the weapons and fight-ring over there?" The guy asked, moving over to where Leo had been practicing. He saw Raph's weights, and the practice dummy, the weapon rack, and punching bag, and I had a sinking feeling in my gut. "Who the hell has been living here?! A bunch of terrorists?!" Yup, there went the other shoe.

"Man, this is creepy. I have this crazy feeling we ain't alone. Like I'm being watched, or something. Dave, let's get the hell out of here before they come back. I don't want to meet the guys who brought all this stuff in here!" Heh, if he ONLY knew… His friend nodded agreement, and they started to back out, still swinging the flashlights around at everything. They never saw us, though. Sometimes, it's GOOD to be a ninja.

They left, and we waited several minutes before we all slipped out of our hiding places. Leo gave me a dirty look for leavin' the TV on, but didn't say anything. None of us did. The guys were gone, but it didn't matter. We all knew what their showin' up meant. We had to bug out, and find a new home- AGAIN.

And that was the last day I spent in that place- until that rainy evening with Orlene. But talkin' with her made me realize that we had more in common than I ever thought. She'd lost a home too, and worse- her family. Maybe that's why she spent so much time with us- we were the closest thing to family she had now. Sometimes I forget that we're lucky to have each other, even though we argue and fight a LOT.

The rain finally stopped, but it was several hours before the tunnels were clear enough to go back, and by then, we'd been gone all night. On the way back, we ran into an old acquaintance, and had to fight our way out of a horde of angry rats and their "master". Yup, our old "friend" the Rat King decided to come out to play. Dunno why that creepy loon showed up- maybe the rain had washed him out of wherever it is he usually hides out. Whatever it was, I didn't like the way he started sniffin' of Orlene. Like she was a prime-cut rib in front of a starving dog or somethin'. We tried to outrun the creep, but those nasty pests caught up to us just when we were about to escape into the subway, and he yanked her back down. Then he tried to haul her off over his shoulder like some cave man! Stupid jerk. I got stuck fightin' off his little pets- and got bitten in some places you DON'T want to get bitten.

I finally managed to shake 'em all off by divin' into a side-tunnel that was still full, and then had to go huntin' after him, to uh, "convince" him to let her go. I may not like fighting, but when it comes down to it, I'd rather do MY convincing with a pair of 'chucks ANY day. It wasn't easy- I'm not good at tracking like Raph or Leo- but I just had to think like a rat, and followed my instincts. I knew he would need someplace close, since he'd said we were in his territory. There were only a few places around that area that would be suitable as a lair, so I just decided to check all of 'em. Fortunately, a few of the buggers had been left behind, so I decided to watch 'em and see if they'd lead me to his hide-out. The hard part was gonna' be makin' sure I didn't get spotted by any of his furry informants. That's what I call bein' "ratted out"! Okay, that was bad even for me….

I followed a couple of stragglers through the tunnels, hopin' they weren't just wandering around lookin' for food. They crept along with their noses sniffin' the air, whiskers twitchin' nervously. I lost 'em down a short side-tunnel, but not for long. It wasn't hard to pick up the trail again, especially when I started smellin' rat-poop. So then I just followed my nose. I knew I was on the right track when I saw a pair of those beady-eyed minions at the bottom of an access-way to the North River wastewater treatment plant. I'd hit pay dirt first try! Well, it didn't hurt that it was the closest place to where he made off with my gir- uh, friend. I chunked a couple of shuriken at them, and they went down without so much as a squeak. I don't usually like killin' small furry things- it's just not cool- but there wasn't much choice if I wanted to get in and out of there without gettin' caught.

I found her without much trouble, and even managed to get her cage open before his royal rat-majesty woke up. The guys used to tease me about practicing those old coin and card tricks, but they never seem to mind too much when I use those slight-of-hand skills to gaffe somethin' important like a key or a dangerous artifact some bad dudes already stole. Besides, I'm not the only one with sticky fingers- I know for a fact that Don can't resist "borrowing" some little piece of tech that catches his eye when we raid bad guys' hideouts. He won't admit it's stealing though. HE calls it "commandeering useful gear". Yeah, like that makes it any better….

I wasn't too keen on fightin' those little fur-balls again, so Orlene and I beat it back to that tunnel where I ditched the first bunch of rats, and we made a swim for it. Long story short, by the time we got home, we'd been gone almost a day, and my bros were royally pissed when we got back. Even Master Splinter scolded me for bein' gone so long. Me, I was just glad it was all over. I can think of a lot of bad guys I'd rather tangle with than old Cheddar-breath. He doesn't even do his own fighting- just lets those dirty rats do it for him. It's hard to fight when your opponents are small enough to run under you and number in the dozens. Besides, rats are ugly, filthy, creepy little vermin- except for Sensei. He's cool.

And did I mention that my turtle-com had fallen off my belt when we were in that flood? We couldn't even call in to let the guys know where we were! Yeah, Donnie ripped me a new one over that, 'cause the parts for those things are hard to find. Not MY fault, though. Mostly they were all worried 'cause we'd been gone so long without checkin' in. Raph even made some smart-ass comment about me wantin' to play hooky from practice. Yeah, like I PLANNED to get stuck for hours in a noisy, uncomfortable place with NOTHING to do- in spite of what he was obviously implyin'- and then get into a rumble with that rodent-brain. And he says I'M the dumb one!

Anyway, when we FINALLY got back and told 'em what happened, Leo asked me why I didn't just bring her down from the garage. Yeah, like I said- I TOTALLY spaced on that one. Bad news was, she blamed me for bein' an idiot, and for basically gettin' her into the whole mess to begin with. Guess I can see her point. But she wasn't talkin' to me for a few days after that. I felt like it really WAS my fault, and I wondered if maybe she was just tryin' to be nice when she said that stuff about doin' anything I wanted. Sometimes I feel like I'm not much good for anything. Nothing important, anyway. Sure, I've got mad skateboard skills, but so what? And I may be a wiz in the kitchen, but what good are those things when someone you really care about is in trouble? I felt pretty worthless, 'cause I knew she was right. I'd screwed things up pretty bad. I tried to tell her I was sorry, but you know girls….

To make things worse, she went off with Donnie to help him find some parts to replace the cell I lost. That was almost a slap in the face, seein' her actin' all chummy with my brainy bro, and ignorin' me. Ouch. But it was pretty obvious she was tryin' to get back at me for what happened. Sometimes I just don't get females. They're all sweet and nice one minute, but ya' mess up once, and suddenly you're "persona non gratis" for DAYS. I'd be pullin' my hair out tryin' to figure them out, if I had any. And HE didn't even notice what she was doin'. Don may be smart when it comes to science and all that mechanical and tech stuff, but he's clueless about girls, or anything to do with social skills. That's MY department. Well, sort of.

And then there was that crap Raph and Leo gave me about tryin' to get friendly, just 'cause we spent the night alone. I mean, sure it was nice havin' the chance to get closer, but it's not like we were makin' out or anything! Even I know better than to think that's ever gonna' happen. Sometimes Raph is such a jerk. He's always yankin' my chain, just 'cause he's older and tougher. Big deal- I can STILL kick his ass any day of the week- with one hand tied behind my back. All it takes is gettin' him riled up enough to start loosin' his cool. He can't fight worth crap when he's pissed off. Ya' just gotta' know when to lay off before he goes over the edge and gets a rage on. I made that mistake once; he almost beat my head in with a crowbar. Leo and Donnie had to pull him off me, and I wouldn't spar with him for a week after that. Sometimes he scares me a little…..

Almost as soon as they left, I started feelin' like a bug in a jar. Maybe that's 'cause I had two brothers starin' me down. Big bro was tappin' his foot with his arms folded, givin' me THAT look. The one he gets when he's about to start lecturin' us. Raph was leanin' on the sofa, twirlin' one of his sais. He only does that when he's ready to kick someone's butt. Like, mine, maybe.

"So. You wanna' tell us what's goin' on here, little bro?" Yup, Raphael's really got a way with words.

"Uh, what're you talkin' about?" Playin' dumb is easy when everyone already thinks you are….

"Can it, Mikey. You KNOW what he means. What's going on with you lately? You've been letting yourself get distracted, practically drooling every time she comes down- and don't think we haven't noticed your 'volunteering' to pair up during practice. Have you forgotten the little fact that you're A TURTLE?!" Ouch. Harsh, Leo. Real harsh.

"Oh, I guess that would explain that shell on my back! Thanks for the update, guys! Does the word 'DUH' mean anything to you?!" Okay, I was gettin' a little ticked at 'em for givin' me the third degree. But it's none of their business, anyway.

"Hey, do I haf'ta pound some sense into that thick skull of yours? Yer gettin' yer 'chucks twisted over a girl! Tell me, what was she talkin' about earlier? Somethin' about spendin' the night nearly naked? You wanna' clue us in on what happened last night?" Raph said. I glared at him; did he HAVE to bring that up?

"NOTHING happened. She took 'em off to dry while we were stuck down there! That's ALL!" I wanted to beat him into the ground for even suggesting we'd- Not that I didn't WANT to, but….

"Yeah, and I bet you were LOVIN' that!" He shot back, rolling his eyes.

"Mikey, we all know how it is- it's hard for us too. But we have to accept that there are some things we can't have. You have to let this go." Trust Leo to follow his head. Sometimes I wonder if he EVER lets his heart do the thinkin'. Then again, he's one to talk, pinin' over a girl who's half a world away, AND who tried to kill us when we met her!

"Yeah, sure Raph. There was nothin' to see. She was wrapped in a blanket the whole time. Geez- get OVER yourself!" By then, I was just disgusted with the whole thing. They just didn't get it. "I KNOW that, Leo. But I swear, nothin' happened. Heck, she doesn't even know how I…." I couldn't even say it, 'cause that would mean admittin' there WAS somethin' goin' on. That's the part that rankled most. They were spazzin' out over somethin' that couldn't go anywhere, when she didn't even have a clue. Guess the joke was on me for once.

"Mikey…." Leo started to say somethin', but just shook his head and reached out to squeeze my arm. That's as close as big bro ever gets to sayin' anything like "I'm sorry". That would've been enough, but Raph had to go and pop off his big mouth.

"Yeah, nothin' happened THIS time. But what about next time? You gonna' keep pretendin' there's nothin' between you two?" I spun on him, and the only thing that kept me from poppin' him one in the jaw was Leo steppin' in between us. I glared at Raph, and let out an angry growl.

"Y'know what?! Forget it. I don't have to explain myself to you guys. Kiss off!" I stalked back to my room, and didn't come back out until Don and Orlene got back.

They were only gone for an hour or so; when they got back, she kept lookin' at me funny, but she still wouldn't talk to me. After practice- and Master Splinter left Leo in charge again, which kind of bothered me, 'cause he's been doin' that a lot lately- she just left without a word, and she didn't talk to me again for almost a week. I tried askin' Donatello what he said to her while they were out, but he wasn't talkin', either. At least until I threatened to play football with Raph in his workshop! He knows we get pretty rough when we play, and he spilled his guts pretty quick after that. I am SO good, I scare myself sometimes…. Turns out, he filled her in on mutant anatomy 101. The Cliff's Notes version. Geez, no wonder she was givin' me the fish-eye. His explanations could make ANYTHING sound gross.

The next few days were torture. It was hell sittin' next to her during morning meditation, or watchin' her spar with Don or Leo- 'cause he wouldn't let me pair up with her, the jerk- when she just acted like I wasn't even there. Raph made my life heck, too. He kept gettin' in the way or interrupting every time I tried to get her to talk to me. He's such a douche-bag sometimes. I knew what he was doin'. He was tryin' to keep me from spendin' any time alone with her. They ALL were. I had to ambush her one morning on her way in, while the guys were havin' breakfast, before she'd give me a chance to make it up to her.

When we finally made up, I thought everything would be copasetic again, but that never lasts with us. A few nights later, we went out on a roof-top patrol after Casey got back into town and heard some rumors about a gang war brewin'; since it was her first time out with us, we were keepin' it easy and slow. We heard some shouts down on Pike St. at Cherry- that's near the East Side Waterfront district- and then the shooting started. Leo told Orlene to hang back, since she'd never been in a gun battle before. She wasn't happy about it, of course. Sometimes she's almost as stubborn as Raph.

So we dropped in on the guys doin' the shootin'- sure enough, it was a bunch of Turks and Purple Dragons fightin' over turf- and we scared the "shell" out of 'em. Not that they had time to figure out what was goin' on; we hit hard, and hit fast, then left 'em for the cops to sort out later. That's the fun part of what we do, to tell the truth. I may not like fightin', but I DO like to "play" pretty rough sometimes. That's why I pair up with Raph all the time during practice- he likes a good rumble, too. Plus, bustin' chops on a bunch of jerks who just don't know how to get along makes the world a little better place, and gettin' those guns off the streets makes everyone safer. We always take 'em apart and dump 'em in the nearest junk yard compactor, just to make sure they never get used again.

We didn't get out without a scratch, though. Raph took a hit during the fight. Once the two gangs realized that someone else had showed up to the party, they stopped shooting at each other, and started shooting at US. Not that we weren't expecting it. Occupational hazard. We were lucky Raph only got winged in the leg, but he was grumpy about it for days. I'm just glad it wasn't anywhere serious, like his head. Then again, that might be an improvement on his looks- but if he ever asks, I'll deny I ever said that.

The worst thing about that patrol was runnin' into Hun. He's the big-bad of the Purple Dragons. The head-honcho. The Big Kahuna, the- well, ya' get the idea. He's bad news. Seven feet of pure muscle, and tough as nails, with a bad attitude and some mad fighting skills. If he ever went straight, he could really clean up in the UFC. The dude's a brute.

Hun's the only one of the Dragons who knows who we really are, 'cause we've fought him before. He kicked our butts the first time. He's also allied with the Foot. Basically, we think he's one of tin-face's spies and muscle-men here in the city. Not sure, but we think Hun's gang works for Shred-head directly- but we can't prove it. He's big, but he's also smart. He also has funding from somewhere, maybe even from those fake businesses Saki uses to hide some of his shady underworld ties. See, Saki was a crime-lord long before he met Krang, and he still keeps up with the crime syndicate he runs usin' the Foot. The REAL Foot, that is- not those stupid robots.

A few weeks after the fight, Master Splinter threw us all for a loop when he made Orlene a kunoichi- that's a special kind of FEMALE ninja- of the Foot. See, before that worm turned it into his own personal crime-ring, it used to be an ancient and honorable ninja clan in Japan. Hamato Yoshi was the Grandmaster's most favored student and a Master himself. Sensei was his pet, and he learned everything he taught us by watching his owner. Guess he was pretty smart for a rat, even then. When his Master was framed and disgraced, they came to New York with nothing, and lived the best they could. Meanwhile, that snake Saki used the Foot to take a chunk out of Japan's underworld for himself, and ended up gettin' booted out on his butt by the Grandmaster and the clan members that were still loyal to him, when they found out HE was the one who tried to tried to assassinate him.

I guess Yoshi had the last laugh on him, 'cause he sent a letter to the clan that exposed Saki's plot. That's why old tin-face followed him here and killed him. But he also wiped out the rest of the clan, just for spite, which means Master Splinter is just about the only one left who still knows all the clan's secrets. Well, I guess there's always Kazuo, Saki's younger brother, but he left the clan a long time ago to join the Tokyo PD, and he's not technically a ninja anyway. He only ever learned basic combat. I kinda feel sorry for the guy, havin' a psycho like Oruku for a brother. Makes me wonder what their childhood was like. SOMETHIN' must've turned that guy into a monster. Maybe he just didn't get enough attention as kid.

Anyway, Master Splinter is basically the "true" leader now- as much as a rat COULD be, I guess- since he learned from his Master. That sort of makes us the "new" Foot clan, or maybe we're just all that's left of the old one. But when he promoted her to kunoichi, it meant that she would be part of the clan, too. Which technically makes her our sister, 'cause it means she's been adopted into the family. Weird, huh? Only problem is, I'm not quite sure what that would mean for uh, possible future relationships. I mean, I've heard of kissin' COUSINS, but a SISTER?! Um, yeah….. Then again, she's not BLOOD-related, so….? Okay, things are startin' to get complicated around here. Maybe I should pick this up again after I go clear my head in the half-pipe. That usually helps.


	9. Chapter 9

Secrets and Revelations

The next night, we all set out together, into the New York night. As soon as we reached the streets, We made for the nearest rooftop, climbing up for a better vantage. I'd been working for weeks on strength training and gymnastics, building up the muscles to run the obstacle course that was the Manhattan roofscape. We started on Canal Street, down Washington to the Battery, then back up Broadway to Pearl, over to Madison Avenue, sticking to the rooftops most of the way. We had just crossed Pike Street, when we heard shouts from down at the intersection of Pike and Cherry just two blocks away. We rushed toward the sound, ready for anything. At least they were- by that time, I was starting to get winded from the route we'd taken across most of lower Manhattan Island. I was glad for once that Leonardo had worked me so hard, or I'd have never had the stamina for a cross-town triathlon high above ground.

When we got there, we saw a crowd gathering, which consisted of a group wearing black jackets with a big red "T" on one side, and another whose members all had a large tattoo of a dragon in bright purple prominently inked on their faces, heads, arms, or even chests or backs. The most noticeable of them was a HUGE blonde man with his hair shaved on the sides and the rest in a ponytail half-way down his back, standing at least seven feet tall, to judge from the others around him. He was built like a tank, with arms larger than most people's thighs, and a chest and shoulders that would have looked more at home on a gorilla. His tattoo ran down his left arm. I noticed he also had a scar of three long lines running down his left cheek to the jaw. There was an odd tattoo on his other shoulder of a symbol I'd seen before, but I couldn't place it. But something told me he was trouble. With a capital "T".

"Well, well. Looks like we hit pay-dirt, bros." Raph muttered, looking down with eyes narrowed. "And look who's here- it's that scum-bag Hun."

"Hun?" I asked, turning to the others with a questioning look.

"He's the leader of the Purple Dragons. If he's here, it must be serious. I'll lay odds they're about to wipe the Turks out and take over their territory." Leo said softly, a dark expression on his face. I glanced at the other two, wondering what was going through their minds.

"Dudes, this is gonna' be a MAJOR rumble. Lotta' innocent people could get hurt. We gonna dance?" Mikey asked, pulling out his 'chucks. There was an intense look on his usually friendly features that I'd only seen once before, when he faced down the Rat King.

"I'm up for it," I said, though I wasn't sure if I was really ready for something like this. I could hold my own in practice against Mikey or Donnie, but a real fight? I had my doubts. These were thugs who had spent their lives on the streets surviving by their fists and sheer brutality.

Then the voices below us turned darker, more angry- and that's when everything went to hell on the street. I don't know which side drew first, but in seconds, it had turned into a firefight, with guns blazing on both sides. I looked at my four companions, wondering if they were going to reconsider getting involved. I should have known better. All four suddenly had weapons drawn, and Leo grimaced, his cool brown eyes hard as stone.

"Let's dance," He said, voice rough, cold, and low. He turned to me, and for just a moment, I saw a note of concern on his face. "You stay up here. This is gonna' get messy, and I don't want you in the line of fire. You haven't been trained for this yet. We can't fight if we have to worry about you getting hurt. I'm sorry. Stay here, and let us handle this. And that's an ORDER." Then he was leaping out off the edge of the five-story apartment building we stood atop, down onto a fire escape landing two floors below, leaving me no chance to argue. The others followed without a word; but as Michelangelo leapt down, he glanced back, and I thought I saw a look of apology pass over his face. Then they were all diving and swinging down toward the street, before literally dropping right into the fray.

I watched anxiously as they all landed onto several of the combatants, moving with a speed and silence that left the thugs unaware of their initial attack. They'd gone for the element of surprise, and in a few seconds they had already taken out four of the gang members. They launched straight into their next targets from behind, knocking out another bunch before they even knew what had hit them. Of course, it didn't take long for the rest of the shooters to realize that there was a new threat in their midst. But a pair of shuriken into the nearest street lights plunged the area into darkness, and the shadows left them confused and off-balance.

So far, they'd taken down eight of the Turks, and now they spread out, with two of them- I thought I saw a glint of steel from Leo's swords, and the long silhouette of Don's bo- moving like living shadows on the Purple Dragons on the opposite corner of the street. I watched a Dragon go down with a swipe to the back of his knees from Donatello's weapon, howling in pain. I grimaced, knowing he'd probably be down with busted legs while he sat in jail the next morning. Not that I felt sorry for the creep. He'd earned it.

I heard shouts of surprise and anger from both sides now, and suddenly the shots started going wild, aimed not at the rival gang members, but at the silent, swift opponents that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. They couldn't see well enough to fire accurately, but I was still worried. All it would take was one lucky shot to leave one of my friends gravely wounded or worse down on the street. And as if to confirm my worst fears, I suddenly heard a cry of pain from down below and to the right, where I could vaguely see the gleam of Raph's sais. I caught a stagger in his movement, and knew he'd been hit. Yet he kept fighting, diving low and rolling, coming up to kick straight up into the arm of a Turk with a red Mohawk and a chain from ear to nose. The Turk howled, dropping his gun, and his attacker followed up with a second kick to the groin that dropped him to his knees.

It was the big guy that had me the most worried. He backed away from the fight, toward the center of the intersection where there was still enough light to see anything that came at him. I scowled. This one was smart; he seemed to know he faced something dangerous and unusual. He pointed his gun at every figure that came close, but didn't fire. He was watching for something. Then he did something I hadn't expected. He backed further into the light, and yelled out into the darkness.

"Freaks! Come out and face me! I know you're there- you should've stayed out of this! It's between my boys, and those Turk loosers! Now get out here where I can see you, and fight like a man!"

"Ain't you learned yet, Hun? We AIN'T men." Raph's distinctive accent sounded from the darkness, and I heard a familiar snigger from my left.

"Yeah, dude. We don't fight like men- we fight like TURTLES!" I groaned softly to myself. Mikey just HAD to put in his two cents….

"What's wrong, reptiles? You afraid to face me?" The blonde mountain of a man answered, swinging his gun around, squinting into the shadows.

I stared at him in shock. Was this guy serious? He clearly knew who- or WHAT- he was dealing with, and that worried me. He waited, peering into the dark area where both gangs had been getting pummeled by four dark shapes that moved with frightening speed and agility. By now, the few thugs that were left had turned tail and run off, scattering in all directions away from the shadowy threat. When all of them were either out cold or had fled, I was surprised again when Leonardo stepped out into the light.

"It's just us now, Hun. You're going to walk away from here and forget about this turf war business. There's not going to BE any war while we're around. Every time you try to start something, we'll be there to stop it. Either it ends here and now, or you and your men pay the price. That's not a threat, that's a promise." He sheathed his blades, and simply stood there, staring down his opponent coolly.

"You freaks are gonna' regret sticking your noses where they don't belong. Eat lead!" He raised his gun again to fire- but in an instant, a sai flew through the air and knocked it from his hand.

"Not tonight, Hun. NOBODY'S gonna' eat any lead tonight. Not on OUR watch." I heard Raphael's deep voice from the shadows, and he stepped into the light behind his brother, a trickle of red running down his right leg. I sighed in relief, seeing the injury. I'd feared it might be much worse.

The Dragons' leader scowled, as two more shapes came out of the shadows to stand with their siblings, all glaring at him darkly. The two youngest turtles gripped their weapons as though eager for the big man to ignore the warning. "This isn't over, reptiles. You can count on that!" He growled, his blue eyes blazing with cold fury. At last, he turned and started to walk away, toward an expensive black car- I thought it was a BMW, from what I could see from my vantage. I could vaguely hear him snarling something as he went, probably choice epithets concerning the parentage or orientation of my four companions. I watched as he slammed the car door after him and peeled out as he drove off into the night, leaving his gang groaning on the street. Then we all heard the distant sound of sirens.

"Guys, you know what to do!" Leo said, and all four fanned out, grabbing guns as they went. Raph stopped for a moment to pick up his sai and Hun's weapon, before he rejoined his brothers. In seconds, they'd cleared the street of every weapon they could find, and left the two gangs lying on the street for the cops to find. By the time the first squad car arrived, they were already halfway up the fire escape to the roof where I waited for them.

"What are the guns for?" I asked, as they climbed up over the edge of the roof to meet me. No one answered me. Raph was limping slightly, and I noticed he looked a little pale. There was a small hole in his right thigh. From the blood dripping down his leg, I guessed he'd been hit worse than I thought. The police were on the street now, no doubt wondering what the heck had happened. I wondered if they might follow the trail he'd left behind on his way up the fire escape. Evidently, Leo had the same thought.

"Okay, we need to get that bandaged fast. We don't need to leave a trail for the police to follow. There's going to be too many questions about tonight's shoot-out as it is. Let's go, guys, before anyone thinks to look up here!" Leo started tucking guns into his belt, stuffing as many as he could fit. The others began doing the same.

"Got it covered, bro," Raph said, yanking the bandana off his head and tying it around his leg. It seemed odd to see him without it on, and for a moment I had the odd feeling that without them, the boys would be hard to tell apart. Only a subtle variation in the shade of their skin and eyes, and the patterns of their shells, marked any real distinction. And a slight disparity in height. I'd noticed early on that Raphael was the tallest, not to mention the heaviest. In contrast, Michelangelo was the leanest and shortest of the four, which might account for his seemingly incredible agility in comparison. Leo and Donnie fell somewhere in the middle, yet unless one saw them all together, it would be hard to tell who was who without their brightly colored masks. Or maybe I was simply not familiar enough with their physical differences to distinguish traits that they would consider obvious.

We took off back to the lair, this time taking a much shorter path above the streets. Even so, by the time we arrived, Raphael had lost a fair amount of blood, and had to be half-carried down. He didn't seem to be worried, though. Mostly he just grumbled about stupid street-punks and how much he hated guns. He didn't complain about the pain, but I knew that he was just putting up a front to avoid appearing weak. Anyone could see he was hurt. The bullet had gone through cleanly, which was a good thing, but it had left a hole all the way though the side of his leg. He complained more about the scar he'd have than he did about the wound itself. Apparently, even mutants aren't immune to vanity.

After that night, things went back to normal for the most part. The streets settled down, thanks in part to the major bust the NYPD had made of members of both gangs. They had claimed it was the result of a long-running investigation that ended with an undercover team that had taken down the rival gangs. Of course, I knew better. But no one- not even the thugs themselves- wanted to admit that they'd been beaten up by a bunch of mysterious vigilantes that no one had even seen. My friends had made sure of that. Only the one called Hun had seen them at all. The rest had all been unconscious by then.

The guns, as I later discovered, were taken to the nearest junk yard, disassembled, and tossed into a compactor to be destroyed. The ammo clips were discarded separately, in a foundry furnace- well away from anyone who could get hurt by an exploding bullet going astray. My four companions were nothing if not thorough. They wanted no chance of the weapons or ammunition ever being used to hurt an innocent. I had long since come to understand that they had a deep loathing for the misuse of weapons of any kind, but they had a distinct aversion to firearms in particular. Only Leo even seemed comfortable with using or being around them at all, and I learned that he was the only one who had ever done any training in firearm-use. But that made sense for the leader of a band of crime-fighting warriors. Someone had to know how to deal with the weapons safely, and how to dismantle them. The others were less inclined to do so, especially Mikey, for some reason I didn't quite understand. He simply refused to touch them any more than necessary, even to get them off the streets. I wondered at the reason, but couldn't quite bring myself to ask.

Over the next few weeks, I continued my lessons, which were by now growing more difficult as I progressed. I spent hours at a time working on kicks or throws, learning techniques to avoid injury from a fall, or using chi. A few weeks after the street-fight, I was surprised one day during my daily practice routine when Splinter personally took over my lesson from Leonardo.

"Focus you chi. Gather it into your center, and feel its power within. Feel it flowing through you, like a river. Then STRIKE!" That was Splinter, showing me how to break wood with my hands. I still wasn't sure if I could do it, but he seemed confident in my abilities.

I closed my eyes, trying to feel my inner strength- my chi, as he put it- and let it flow to my hand. Then I opened them, and hit the board as hard as I could. "Ki-Yaahh!" I shouted, and was amazed to see that it worked. The board I'd struck snapped neatly in half. "I did it! I don't believe it! And on the first try, too!" I looked at Master Splinter, who merely nodded and smiled, obviously pleased.

"Yes, that is good. But remember, the true warrior uses his power wisely. Strength must be tempered by compassion and wisdom, or it becomes meaningless. Anyone may use his strength to intimidate or bully. The wise man knows when to use his strength, and when to practice restraint."

"Yes, Sensei. I will remember," I said, bowing slightly.

"So, Master, what do you think? Is she ready for the next step?" Leo asked. He'd been watching, and I felt vaguely self-conscious with him standing there. Sometimes he made me nervous. I always felt like he was judging every move I made. If I didn't do something just right, he would make me stop and start over again from the beginning. It was a little annoying at times.

"Ai. It is time." Splinter said, nodding to his favored student. I felt eyes on me from behind, and glanced around. The other three had all moved closer, forgetting their own training to see what was going on. Mikey glanced from me to the board, and back. An odd expression lit his face, and he grinned.

"You did it on the first try? Awesome! You ROCK, babe!" I turned to glance at him curiously, and he just gave me an awkward half-smile and a thumbs-up.

"Hey, not bad! Not bad- for a girl!" Raph said, with his usual amount of tact.

"What?! That was pretty good for Rambo!" I shot back at him, grinning. He just laughed.

"Yeah, but boards don't fight back. Let's see you do that to one of those Foot robots!" He said, smirking.

"Bring 'em on, baby!" I teased, and he grinned and shook his head in amusement.

"Lady, you got guts!"

"Okay, that's enough clowning around, you two. We still have important business to attend to." Trust Leonardo to kill the mood. Sometimes I think Mikey's right; he takes life way too seriously at times. Like, always.

"Yes, Leonardo is correct. This is no laughing matter, Raphael. Miss McCann, today you are ready to begin the next step in your training. This is an important decision, one you must make carefully. I have decided to teach you the skills of the kunoichi. Do you accept this honor?"

"Kunoichi?" I asked, puzzled. I turned to the others for an explanation, for this was something I'd not heard of before. Three jaws dropped; only Leo seemed unsurprised. The others just traded glances, then stared at me as if I'd just sprouted a halo and wings.

"He means a female ninja," Leo said, giving me an appraising look. "It's a very rare honor, because so few ever prove worthy."

"I thought I already WAS training as a ninja," I said, confused. I wasn't quite certain what was going on, but the guys seemed impressed. I realized I was missing something here.

Leo shook his head. "This is different. A kunoichi uses a slightly different skill-set. Mostly deception, disguise, information gathering, poison-use, and, uh, seduction. Of course, you'll still learn combat and stealth, but you'll be learning some things only a woman can do effectively."

"Okay, the rest I sort of understand, but poison? Who am I supposed to be poisoning? I didn't think you guys went in for killing." I asked. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this.

"We don't. But traditionally, knowledge of poisons and medicines is part of that training. It wouldn't hurt to have someone on the team who knows how to use herbs or how to drug someone if need be. Sure, we could do it, but it's better suited to the more subtle skills of a kunoichi. That's you." Leo explained. I thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. It made sense, if one considered that they specialized in the more physical aspects of the art. Apparently, Splinter was looking for something different from me. An infiltrator, perhaps?

"Okay, I think I understand. So this is a special kind of training." I answered. "But I'd still be working with all of you, right? I'd still be able to help you fight?" I still hadn't forgotten my reason for wanting to learn. I wanted- no, needed- to help take down my parents' killer.

"Indeed. If you accept, you will become a kunoichi of the Foot clan, an honor which only nine others have ever earned in the history of the clan. It is an honor and a privilege to be named a Foot kunoichi. It means you will be a full member of the clan. This is not a decision to be made lightly." Splinter said, nodding.

Now he had me completely confused. "Foot? Like those robots Shredder uses?"

Splinter's lips curled up in anger. "NO! Those abominations are NOT the true Foot. I speak of the TRUE Foot clan, as it was before Oruku Saki twisted it into the perversion of the noble and honorable clan it once was. The Foot clan's TRUE legacy is here, within this room. My Master Yoshi was the leader of the clan, second only to the Grandmaster himself. Saki's treachery and wickedness destroyed the clan's honor, but not its teachings. I have kept them alive, by passing on the teachings of my Master to my sons. Hamato Yoshi knew the greatest secrets of the clan, including the secrets of the clan's kunoichi. I learned them from him, and now I wish to pass these secrets to you."

"I- I had no idea. Forgive my ignorance, Sensei," I said, bowing deeply in respect. I'd almost forgotten that he had once been a pet of a man who was a Master in his own right, and that he had belonged to the same clan as our enemy. Somehow, I'd never made the connection with the so-called Foot soldiers we'd faced before. "I would be honored to join those who have earned that right, Master Splinter. Thank you." I just hoped I wasn't getting in over my head. I still wasn't quite sure what this new rank entailed, but something told me it was going to complicate things.

"You are most welcome, my daughter." Splinter said warmly, a serene smile on his features. For once, the old rat seemed almost happy, and I almost forgot the graying fur and the grizzled whiskers and stooped posture that told of his advancing age. I was so pleased to have made him smile that I overlooked the odd endearment. If I'd have known what it truly meant, I might have reconsidered my position.

That was when Mikey suddenly chimed in. "Hey- if she's gonna be a Foot kunoichi, then doesn't that mean she just got adopted into the clan? That would make her, like, part of the family, wouldn't it?" He looked around at his brothers inquiringly, and Leonardo nodded. The other two just stared in stunned silence, their gazes darting from Splinter to me.

"Yes. Father and I talked about it earlier, and he believes she should join the family. It's not unheard of, you know. Many clans once adopted warriors into their ranks as full family members. Sometimes they even adopted female warriors as daughters and married them to their sons to keep the family strong. C'mon, guys- if any of you ever paid attention in our history studies, you'd all KNOW this!" Leo shook his head in exasperation, with a disgusted sigh.

"Wow. Don't that just beat all, eh bros?" Raph said at last. "Welcome to the family- SIS." He leaned against a sparring post, giving me a half-assed salute and a smirk. Don just looked thoughtful, his brow furrowed deeply, and nodded. I had a sinking feeling that Raph had meant that literally.

Leonardo stood before me, bowing formally, and then smiled. "I know you'll make us all proud, Orlene. I know you have your own life, but you're a part of ours too, now, and you'll always be welcome here. You're family now, and that's not something we take lightly. We wouldn't do this for just anyone. But we've considered you part of the family for a while now- this just makes it official. Yokoso, nesan. Welcome, sister."

Family? Sister? My head spun. What had I just gotten into? "Oh boy…" I muttered softly, my knees suddenly feeling like jello. This was a bizarre turn of events, no doubt!

From that day on, things seemed to change between myself and the guys. While we had been close friends before, now they seemed more eager to share their lives with me, and to extend even more of the same trust and camaraderie that they shared with April and Casey. Raph now treated me like a true sister, often including me in the playful competition that went on between them. Some days it seemed as if he went out of his way to get me into their banter and boisterous play. I wasn't quite sure what to make of that. Like most males, they tend to play rough.

Donatello's attitude was more subdued, yet still affectionate. After our heart-to-heart about anatomy and all things tech, we'd found more common ground then I ever believed possible. We shared similar interests in new discoveries in zoology, paleontology, and astronomy, which had all been loves of mine since childhood. And while his taste in music and movies was eclectic, running toward electronica, techno (naturally) and anything synthesized, or pure classical, I found that he shared my love of Celtic music and show tunes. He was fond of foreign films or art-house movies, but he also enjoyed a good sci-fi flick on occasion, and we shared several lively debates on Kirk vs. Picard, or the relative merits of the Trek vs. Star Wars universes. Donnie was a Trekkie through and through, of course. Myself, I'd never been one to take sides on such issues- I had always liked both.

More importantly, he seemed eager to seek my opinion on his inventions and gadgets, always asking me for ideas on how to improve his work. While I was no expert on the subject, I appreciated the simple fact that he had learned to treat me as an intellectual equal. I began helping him in his workshop on occasion, testing his projects and offering suggestions where I could. He seemed glad to finally have someone around who appreciated his work, since none of his brothers had any real interest in what he did.

Leonardo became almost a sort of "big brother", taking his role as advisor and protector to heart in more ways than ever. Not surprising, really. He was already taking Splinter's place as my main instructor and mentor, often displaying a maturity and wisdom well beyond his years. He frequently offered to help when I needed to run errands, by driving me around the city in their van, or carrying items for me to or from my apartment- always in disguise, of course. I think he did it to have some time away from his brothers as much as to help me. I could hardly blame him for wanting to get away from his own problems once in a while. Still, I learned a lot from him on those runs, mostly about how much responsibility he took on himself for his brothers. He seemed to know, even to accept, that their father would not be around forever, so he dealt with many of the little details of life that the others either had no interest in, or didn't know how to handle. I began to understand how hard it was on him, being the main provider and contributor of the family.

Mikey, on the other hand, seemed conflicted in accepting my place in their family. While we remained as close as before, something seemed to have changed between us. Something about my new place in the family- and I still can't quite wrap my head around that- had made him almost shy around me. Yet when I tried to ask him what was wrong, he just shrugged and gave me a cheesy grin, saying he'd just never had a sister before. I wondered if there was more to it, but let it go, knowing he'd get used to the idea in time. For my part, I was still a little unsure of things too; not only did I not have any siblings of my own, but now I had gained four "brothers" who weren't even my species!

I should perhaps mention that my promotion into the ranks of kunoichi also marked another important step. Namely, the beginning of my weapon-training. The very next day, I started working with he various weapons of the ninja, starting with using shuriken and the bo staff. As the simplest of weapons, it was one of the easiest to learn, though true mastery took years of practice and skill. Donnie was my main instructor in this, and in the art of using throwing stars as well, for he was expert at both. I soon began learning archery as well, under Leo's tutelage. I progressed quickly in this, though admittedly I'd done some bow-shooting growing up. My family had enjoyed taking frequent camping trips, and since my father had enjoyed hunting and fishing, naturally he had tried to get me into both sports as well. Although I had never liked guns, target-practice on the archery range had been a shared hobby of ours. I picked it up again almost as if I'd never stopped, and he soon decided that my skill was good enough to concentrate on other things.

From Raphael, I began training with sais and his other weapon of choice, the kama. I discovered a natural affinity for the art, for it seemed that the smaller and lighter weapons suited my own approach to combat well. I'd learned early on to use my small, light stature- at least in comparison to most people- to advantage in hand-to-hand sparring with the boys, ducking easily under most attacks, or finding ways to come in low and fast before they could block. As Leo put it, I'm quick and light on my feet. I suspect that taking dance lessons for several years during my childhood helped, as well.

Of course, training in martial weapons wouldn't be complete without some practice with blades, and for this, I went to the Master. That's Leonardo, naturally. I learned basic tactics and swordsmanship- thankfully, we used bokken, or wooden practice swords- and though I learned quickly enough to be competent, I soon decided to leave the blades to the true expert. Nothing crushes one's confidence quite as fast as being disarmed in the first few seconds of a fight, particularly when that fight involves ending up on your butt with the end of a sword at your throat. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't even come close to matching him. So I moved on to other weapons, hoping to find my own niche.

I tried working with Mikey as well, since he was the resident expert with nunchaku and the three-piece rod. I had more difficulty with these, mainly due to the complexity of the weapons themselves. He was only too happy to aid me in any way, and though he assured me that I was doing well, even I could tell he was frustrated by the lack of progress after more than a week. After that, we moved on to the uchi-ne and kau-sin-ke. The first is a sort of short throwing spear, or a long spike, that can be attached to a cord to reel back in; the kau-sin-ke consists of several short iron bars linked together with short lengths of chain, attached to a handle. I did somewhat better with those.

However, I soon learned that my true talent was in another area altogether. Specifically, multi-purpose weapons. It was Splinter himself who suggested the gunsen, better known as the war fan. Michelangelo then suggested the kusari-gama- a kama with a chain attached to the other end- partly because he had watched me working with Raph, and thought it would make a good choice for me. Turns out, he was right. Who knew?

So I began concentrating on those, and it wasn't long before I understood what Leo meant when he spoke of a warrior's weapon being an extension of himself. I soon felt so comfortable with those two weapons, that I was swiftly gaining ground on my fellow students, in spite of the fifteen-year head start they had.

I spent entire evenings simply practicing an attack sequence, or sparring with one or more of the boys, building up endurance and skill with an almost uncanny speed. Even Leo was impressed with my progress, which I had learned early on was a difficult feat with him. His own desire for perfection in all his endeavors led him to hold others up to the same exacting standards he kept for himself, which was one of the main reasons for the friction that often arose between himself and Raph.

My progress was tested all too soon, when we went out on a patrol of the city, my first real patrol since the battle with the Turks and Hun's Purple Dragons. It was another dismal night, with a light rain falling steadily, making the streets and rooftops alike into shallow puddles that did little more than make for slippery footing. We were traversing across Canal Street and had just about decided to call it a night when we heard the sound of an alarm going off down on the street below. We looked down and saw three figures in dark jackets and ski masks come running out of a small grocery store. One of them had a large sack full of something that I was willing to bet WASN'T his weekly shopping. The last one out had a shotgun. We hadn't heard any shots, which was a blessing, but that could change at any moment if they felt threatened. I looked at my companions, and no one said a word- we all slid down the nearest drain-pipe to the street, and took off after the would-be burglars.

Either they were pretty out of shape, or I'd been getting better than I ever realized, because we caught up with them after less than two blocks. A thrown sai to the leg, a swipe from the chain of my kusari-gama, and a slam in the back from Don's bo brought them down swiftly. That wasn't the end of it, though. The one with the gun rolled onto his back and swung the barrels of his weapon up at whomever had attacked him. We all dived for cover. The three thugs got up; the one with the money started scooping spilled bills back into the sack, while the last one pulled out a switch-blade and moved up to stand beside his compatriot.

"What the hell hit us, man?" The one picking up the now soggy money asked nervously.

"I dunno, but I counted three, maybe four?" That was Mr. Boomstick. I smiled to Raph as I realized the idiot had missed one of us. He nodded and grinned back. From the look in his golden orbs, I could tell he was excited. He's got a slightly sadistic streak, I think. He actually LIKES to pummel criminal creeps into pulp.

They started to back away down the street, keeping their eyes open for any sign of their pursuers. So I gave them a big, fat "bad guys going out of business" sign by rolling out onto the sidewalk and whipping out the chain to yank the gun-wielder's weapon right out of his hands. It flew into the street, and almost as if by magic, the boys melted from behind cars and shop-fronts to leap into melee with the three surprised thugs. I dropped the first one with a sweep of his legs and a fast flurry to his gut. He barely had time to notice the four large and oddly shaped figures flying out of the dark at his accomplices. I heard one high-pitched scream of terror, and a startled curse, from the other thugs. I grinned, wondering what they must have thought they'd seen.

Almost before it had really begun, the fight was over. Leo picked up the fallen sack of money, and dashed back to the store, where he tossed it through the door and was gone before the owner could even catch a glimpse of the Good Samaritan who had just returned his hard-earned cash. The rest of us tied up the three would-be robbers and left them for the police- along with their weapons for evidence.

As we headed home for the night, we traded high-fives, and Leo congratulated me on a job well-done, though of course he took the opportunity to chide me for taking such a risk against an opponent armed with a gun. Still, I was elated to finally be included fully in the team, which meant more than I was willing to admit openly. Raph seemed especially impressed by my seeming lack of fear. In truth, I'd been nervous as a long-tailed cat in a rocking chair factory, but I knew I had to face my fear if I ever wanted to help them defeat our REAL enemy.

If I hadn't convinced them on that first patrol, the next few nights surely helped. True to his warning, the criminal gang leader Hun began a widespread campaign to eliminate the Turks and take over their territory. The five of us had our hands full breaking up fights between the rival gangs. After only a week, I'd already helped break up ten separate street fights between the two gangs. It seemed that the violent inhabitants of New York's seamy underbelly had unofficially declared war on each other, and we were stuck doing damage control.

During one of those battles, I even wound up standing between Donatello and an ignominious end. He was fighting toe-to-toe with Hun himself, while Leo and the rest of the boys were busy dealing with about a dozen Dragon goons. I'd just taken out two myself, whipping the chain of my weapon out to disarm one, then swinging him into his closest ally before leaping in to knock them out. While I was looking around for my next target, I noticed Donnie getting pummeled by the tattooed blonde behemoth, while a stray Dragon circled around behind him with a crowbar. Only a fortunate coincidence of timing and a fist from Hun to Donnie's plastron saved him from getting his skull bashed in; the crowbar only struck him a glancing blow to the back of his head. Not cool. I decided to teach the thug a lesson in fair fighting.

The thug raised his bludgeon above Don's head for another blow while he was fending off Hun, unable to avoid the attack. My kusari-gama's chain snaked out to wrap around the metal shaft of the crowbar, and yank it from the Dragon's grip. He turned his attention on me- which was right where I wanted it- and charged. So I ducked low, letting his momentum carry him right over me, and then let fly with a round-house kick to his back that sent the thug sprawling to the pavement. He lay groaning, and didn't get up. Then I whirled the chain around to slam into the back of the Dragon leader's knees, where it circled twice before twisting on itself. I pulled with as much force as I could muster, which caused him to stumble- right into the butt-end of Donnie's bo. I yanked again, and his feet went flying out from under him, sending the massive blonde outlaw sprawling to the ground face-first. He untangled himself, but by then, we had both scrambled out of his reach.

"Hey! Nice work, sis!" Don said, grinning as he staggered toward the nearest wall. He shook his head to clear it, and I rushed over to steady him.

"You okay, Brainy?" I asked, concerned. He looked a little greener than usual. I wondered if he'd have a concussion from that hit.

"Yeah, just a little dizzy, that's all," He assured me. "I'll be fine. Just need to catch my breath. Hun's got a hell of a right hook!" I wasn't entirely convinced, though.

The others were mopping up the last of the Dragons, when we heard the familiar siren-song of the NYPD joining the party. Leo looked up from the thug slowly attempting to crawl away on hands and knees, and whistled to get our attention. "Gentlemen- and lady- time to vanish!" He ordered as he thumped the thug on the head to knock him out, and tossed a smoke bomb into the middle of the scattered bodies of insensible goons. We all made like the wind, slipping down into the nearest manhole and sliding it back over us as the first squad car arrived.

We celebrated our victory over pizza and a Bruce Lee marathon that night down in the lair. By the time we called it a night, it was late, and rather than return home, I decided to stay the night with them. Ever the gentleman, Mikey offered up his own room to me, and volunteered to sleep on the couch. I wasn't about to argue with hospitality like that, and was more than happy to finally hit the sack after our eventful night.

It was while sitting on the edge of his bed to slip off my sturdy, calf-high leather boots- I wore them mainly for patrols and during practice- that I looked over Mikey's small room. As often as I'd been in their home, I had spent most of that time in their living room, kitchen, or in the dojo, and sometimes in Don's lab; but I'd rarely taken more than a cursory glance inside their individual bedrooms. The space was little more than a small side-alcove-passage about ten feet long, which was set about a half-foot off the floor from the main "playroom", a large, mostly empty lounge area strewn with a few body-pillows and a couple of bean-bag chairs, that opened into the living room.

His "room" was wide enough to accommodate a short, narrow bed, with a small desk opposite that, and little else in the way of real furnishings. There was a box of various pieces of sports gear at the foot of the bed, with Mikey's beloved skateboard leaning against the wall next to it. A narrow, low set of bookshelves stood against the far wall, and a curtain hung from the entrance to provide a small amount of privacy. The shelves were crammed full of toys and books- which I noticed with amusement were mostly comics- and the narrow desk held a small desk lamp and a few other nick-knacks, as well as an old coffee can full of various pens and pencils, as well as several action figures set up in various poses as if in the midst of some battle or adventure. The room gave off a sort of cluttered, yet cozy vibe that seemed to suit the youngest turtle well.

Yet while gazing around his private sanctuary, I noticed something that caught my eye. Lying on the desk half-covered by an old, open artist-supply case filled with markers, colored pencils, paints, and chalk sticks, was a familiar sight. Michelangelo's sketchbook. Donatello's words came back to me again, and I was suddenly overcome by a burning curiosity. I picked it up, noting the half-finished work on the top. It was a group portrait, of myself and his brothers sparring together, laughing together with weapons clashing. I admired the piece for a few moments, realizing he had done it during one of our workouts while he waited for his turn on the mat. I had to admit, he certainly had talent.

I flipped through the pages, which mostly held sketches of friends or family in various candid shots. One thing that soon became clear, however, was my frequent appearance in them. No matter who else might be on the page, somehow I always seemed to be there. Not in every picture, of course, but it was clear enough that he felt I made a good subject to work with. He seemed to favor colored pencils or chalks, though many were simple black and white sketches done in a few minutes. Some of them I had seen before, but most had either been drawn from memory, or he had done them without anyone's knowledge.

I'd gone through most of the pages when I came to two in particular that caught my attention. One was a watercolor portrait, done entirely from his own imagination, it seemed, with myself in a dark green medieval gown, seated in a pose very much like da Vinci's famous Mona Lisa, though his painting was full length, and the background appeared to be their own lair. On the back he had written one simple word- "Greensleeves", which I took to be the title. I marveled at the skill and attention that had gone into it, for it was obvious that it had taken some time. Yet I had to wonder why he had never shown it to me, since he often seemed to value my opinion of his work.

The other one was even more baffling, and perhaps a little unsettling as well, for it was clearly an image entirely out of his own mind, though yet again, he had chosen me as his subject. It was a moonlit scene in Central Park- only half-finished in colored pencils, like so many others- of two people seated on a park bench by Belvedere Lake, with the castle in the distance. It was obviously intended as a lovers' rendezvous, for the couple were kissing, locked in a passionate embrace. I saw my own image in the girl, yet the man in the scene was utterly unknown, a figure half in the shadow of a nearby tree, whose features were hazy, yet boyishly handsome, with his face half-covered by dark reddish-blonde hair, and an odd cast to his skin that was almost green in the shadows.

Still, there was something familiar about the eyes, which a were a warm honey-caramel color. I stared at it for several minutes, wondering what it meant. I paused when I noticed a bit of orange cloth peeking from under the man's coat- and then it suddenly hit me. Michelangelo had drawn himself into the picture, but as a human. The more I stared down at it, the more certain I was that the sketch was an expression of a deep wish for something he would never know. I glanced back through all of the others, and suddenly realized that not once had he placed himself into any of them. Only the one wistful self-portrait, in a place and time that would never be.

But why was he hiding these? Was he ashamed of them, or of himself? I sat pondering for a while, when a movement by the doorway caught my eye. I gasped in surprise, whirling quickly, nearly dropping the sketchbook. Splinter stood there, gazing at me calmly, with an expression of patient concern.

"Ohio, Sensei. Did you want something?" I asked nervously. "Forgive me for snooping, I was just curious."

"So, my child, I see you have found Michelangelo's drawing book. My son has much talent, does he not? I am quite proud of him, as I am of ALL my students." He smiled, and came to stand beside me, laying a hand on my shoulder in a gesture of empathy. "It pleases me to see him taking an interest in something more than games and frivolity. It is a good thing, I think."

I looked up at him, puzzled. Was he speaking of the artwork, or something else? "What do you make of this? It's different from all the others. I'm not sure what he was trying to do here." I pointed down to the one I'd been staring at, hoping he could shed some light on what it meant.

Splinter's bushy brows furrowed for a moment, and I saw something pass over his graying features briefly, his kind eyes closing for a moment in an expression that might have been sorrow. "It seems there is much that he has kept hidden from us all these past months. Though I would never deny my sons that which they truly desire, I fear that he does not understand the reality of the path he has chosen. Still, I believe that perhaps he may find happiness in spite of the difficulty. But that depends upon you, Orlene. Are you prepared for the trials of such a choice?"

Now I was really confused. "I- I'm not sure what you mean, Master. What choice? What does it have to do with me? What has he been hiding?" Splinter's reply had left me with too many new questions.

"He cares more for you than you know, my daughter. I suppose it was inevitable. Though I have tried to protect my sons here below, I have always known the day would come when they would seek lives of their own; it would seem that time has come. He has always been the most restless and caring of my sons. Always, he has followed his heart above all things. This is both a strength and a weakness, but I trust that you will remember this and act accordingly." I stared down at the drawing in bewilderment, understanding hitting me like a leaden weight. If what Splinter said was true, then it meant that Mikey harbored a deep attachment to me. He squeezed my arm lightly, then gave a slight bow and turned to leave. I realized that he was telling me in his own way that he would accept my judgment in the matter, and that if I did not share Michelangelo's feelings, he wished me to let him down gently. I had much to think about, it seemed.

For now, though, it was late, and questions of what to do with the revelation of his affection could wait. I slid under the old, thread-bare blankets and lay awake for a while, trying to ignore the swirl of thoughts that kept playing like an old record in my head. I tried to bury my head in the pillow, but an earthy, musky scent clung to it, further confounding the effort to sleep. It was subtle; comforting, yet strangely intoxicating at once. I knew its source beyond a doubt- it was HIS scent. It seemed like hours before sleep finally found me, and by then the entire lair had gone quiet save for Raph's snoring from his small room across from me, and the dripping of water from a pipe somewhere.

I woke early the next morning, feeling exhausted and agitated, with my arms wrapped around the pillow. For a confused moment I looked around in puzzlement, forgetting where I was. Then I saw the familiar posters of classic horror films and swimsuit models on the walls, and the well-worn skateboard, nicked and scratched from years of use, and everything I'd seen and heard the night before came flooding back. I shot an uncertain glance at his sketchbook, wondering what to do now that I knew of his interest. Truth of it was, I'd never considered the possibility of a relationship with ANY of the four brothers, and never mind the obvious fact that they weren't human- it had simply never crossed my mind that any of them would even see me as more than a good friend.

And yet, it seemed that Michelangelo DID. But how did I really feel about that? There was a part of me- the logical part, no doubt- that argued the impossibility of such a match ever lasting. I knew, rationally, that we were just too different to have a real relationship together. And then there was the part of me that had sensed the truth from the beginning, and wondered if it could work after all. A flash of something half-remembered crossed my consciousness, the last fleeting vision of a dream. Even without remembering what it had been about, I knew WHOM it had been about- and that disturbed me more than I cared to admit.

I shook away those thoughts, determined not to let whatever feelings I might have get in the way of my TRUE goal. I had promised myself that I would see my parents' killer fall, no matter what happened. Even if it meant having to sacrifice myself, I would do whatever it took to rid the world of that monster.

I got up and slipped on my boots, padding softly through the bedrooms' outer area, where a quick glance at the other three alcove-rooms told me that everyone was still asleep. I could still hear Raphael's snoring coming from his room, and chuckled to myself. Apparently, he couldn't be quiet or peaceful even in his sleep. I continued on into the living room, to find Mikey face-down the sofa with one arm dangling off the side, with both feet hanging over the armrest. I watched the slight rise and fall of his carapace, and for a moment, I just studied the pattern of ring-bands on his shell, noting the subtle variations in the color and markings. A few scuffs and nicks marred the otherwise smooth surface, a gouge or two, and even a few small chips around the edges. I knew that each of them had a story, each a reminder of past battles fought or mishaps survived.

As I stood there, I felt a strange urge to reach out and touch the hard surface of his shell. I moved closer, letting my fingers brush lightly over the top, running down the length of the cool, rigid slope. I traced the creases between the spinal and costal scutes with one finger, marveling at the beauty of nature's design in such a unique form of protection. I knew from spending hours roaming outdoors as a child that turtles- and tortoises as well- were among nature's most well-protected creatures, whose natural defenses could deter even the most dangerous predators to find easier prey. Combined with their skills and mutant gifts, it made Michelangelo and his brothers formidable fighters. Blows that might have struck down an ordinary human often simply bounced off their tough shells with little effect.

"Someone knew what they were doing when they made you," I murmured softly, admiring the compact, sinewy muscles in that familiar green form. I knew the strength of those limbs- after all, I'd sparred with all four of them often enough at hand-to-hand fighting that I had felt it used against me plenty of times- though never with intent to harm. No, never that.

Sometimes I wondered if they went easy on me because I wasn't as tough physically, or simply because I was female. At last, my grumbling stomach reminded me that it was time for breakfast, or soon would be. I left him to sleep and went into the kitchen to start a pot of coffee and hunt up something to cook. I knew the smell of coffee brewing would bring the boys in like moths to a flame, especially Don. I decided that since I was up first- surprisingly enough, even before Leo, who I knew was usually the first to rise- I would surprise them with breakfast.

I was bent over pulling a carton of eggs from the archaic refrigerator when the eldest brother padded in with a yawn. Early bird or not, even Leo was teenager enough to not wake up fully right away. He glanced at me curiously, then shot a look back over his shoulder toward the sofa in the living room. "YOU'RE up early. I thought it was Mikey in here making the noise at first, but I guess it's too much to expect HIM to be up already!" He chuckled softly, and I grinned back as I dug for a frying pan in one of the cabinets they had installed years before.

"No, the sleepyhead is still snoozing on the couch. I assume the buzz-saw is still going back there?" I replied, referring to Raphael's snoring.

"Yeah, he's louder than my alarm clock! I think Don is asleep in his lab again, because he wasn't in his room when I went to wake him up just now." He pulled four cups off a rack by the sink, and stood waiting for the coffee to finish.

As if he'd been magically summoned, Donatello opened the door leading from his workshop into the kitchen. "Is that coffee I smell?" He asked groggily. I glanced up at him as I grabbed a box of pancake mix out of the pantry to go with the eggs. Just then, there was a soft shuffling from the doorway.

"Yup, you really ARE a genius, Don. Of COURSE it's coffee! Sheesh!" A grumpy Raph snarked as he pushed past Leo to take a seat at the table.

"You have keyboard indentations on your face, Donnie," I chuckled, seeing the odd rows of little squares on one side of his head. "Fall asleep on your laptop again?"

He yawned, rubbing his eyes. "Yeah, I was up late working last night," the purple-banded sibling replied. I cracked an egg over the frying pan and set it on the stove burner. He cocked his head at me thoughtfully, as he joined Raph at the table. "Mikey usually does the cooking. Should I go get him?" He asked, while Leo poured coffee for all three of them. Without even having to ask, he made each cup exactly to the personal preference of his two brothers. Cream and four sugars for Donnie, black with two sugars for Raph, and straight up for himself. I remembered how my mother had always done the same, making everything just the way I liked it. Evidently, this was one of the reasons Leo was the leader- he knew his brothers' needs perfectly.

"No, I'll wake him when I'm done here. I wanted to do something nice to thank you guys for letting me spend the night." I answered. Donnie fairly beamed his appreciation, Leonardo nodded acknowledgement, and even Raph favored me with a rare sincere smile.

"Thanks, sis," Raph said, as the other two echoed his sentiment.

I finished the eggs and started in on the pancakes, flipping several out and setting them on a plate for the guys before I decided it was time to wake the one late sleeper in the bunch. Even before I had taken a single step beyond the kitchen, the others descended on the food like a flock of vultures on road kill, greedily snatching what they could. I knew I'd have to make more before breakfast ended, as four teenage males could - and usually DID- eat a shameless amount of food. I started wondering if they stored it in their shells somehow, like camels with water in their humps. It might explain the seemingly endless supply of energy they possessed.

I wandered quietly back into the living room where Mikey still slept soundly, and tapped lightly on his carapace, just enough to he heard and felt, and gently shook his shoulder. "Wake up, lazy. You're going to miss breakfast if you don't get in there and grab some before the trio of Hoovers in there suck it all down."

"Ugh, five more minutes, Sensei!" He mumbled, groaning softly. He sounded irritated and half-asleep.

"Do I LOOK like Splinter to you?!" I chided, teasing him. His eyes flew open, and he suddenly shot upright, a look of horror on his face.

"Huh- wha?!" He exclaimed, turning to stare at me. "Oops! Um, sorry! I guess I must have been dreaming!" A look of utter embarrassment turned his face a darker shade of green, as he gave me an apologetic smile. "Hey, did you say breakfast? Who cooked? Not Donnie or Leo, I hope!" He asked, as he belatedly realized what I'd said first. It was an unspoken rule that the kitchen was Mikey's turf, mainly for the simple reason that neither Leo nor Don could cook anything that would actually be considered edible when they were done. Raph's cooking was passable, but when it came to making meals, Michelangelo was the true master. I should know- his chicken marinara or baked salmon are to die for!

"Relax! I made breakfast. You don't think for one minute I'd let either of THOSE two set foot in front of that stove, do you?" I laughed. "But you'd better hurry if you want any- they've probably scarfed down most of it by now." That was all the invitation he needed. He vaulted over the back of the couch and into the kitchen in a green and orange blur. If there was one thing that could motivate THIS turtle to move quickly, it was food.

I followed at a more leisurely pace; by the time I reentered the kitchen, he was already dumping what was left of the eggs onto a plate, and flopped the last four pancakes on top of them. He turned to glance my way, then back down to his plate, and frowned. He sighed softly, then pulled down another plate and two forks, and slid two of the pancakes and half of the eggs onto it. He carried both plates to the table, where Leo handed him a cup of coffee- cream, three sugar, a shot of vanilla- and handed one to me as he took his usual spot at the table. I took an empty chair and joined the four as they ate.

A few minutes into the meal I suddenly realized I'd forgotten the other two members of the family. I rose, and went to the pantry for a box of rice. I whistled while putting a pot of water on to boil, and while it was going, I added some pickled daikon radishes, bean sprouts, cabbage, and bamboo shoots into a bowl and heated it. When all was ready, I set the traditional Japanese dish aside and dug into the pantry for breakfast for the last- and most elusive- resident of the lair.

Holding the small can of food and a spoon, I looked around the kitchen at the boys. "Anyone know where Klunk is? I haven't seen him since last night."

Donnie nodded. "Yeah, he was curled up on my worktable most of the night. He's still there as far as I know." He yawned, taking a sip of his coffee.

I turned and strode to the door of his lab, holding it open while I tapped the can with the spoon. "Klunk? C'mon. boy- it's breakfast! Here, kitty!" A ginger-furred streak shot from the room, and twined around my feet, purring all the way to his dish in the corner. I dumped the entire contents of the can into it, mashing it with the spoon, and watched as the fur-ball greedily dived into his meal with a contented meow. "Geez Mikey, don't you feed this guy?!" I teased, laughing. "He's almost as big of a glutton as you are!"

"Hey! I resemble that statement!" He quipped with a smirk. "Gluttony happens to be one of my finer points, thank you!" He replied, pointedly taking a huge bite of pancakes dripping with raspberry syrup.

"Yeah, along with sloth, greed, pride, lust, and envy!" Raph snorted, ticking off on his thick digits. "Sheesh, you've got six of the seven deadly sins all wrapped up, bro," he said with a piercing stare.

"Aw, don't worry, Raphie- I saved wrath JUST for you!" Mikey retorted sharply, glaring at his older sibling. "Besides, shouldn't pride go to Leo? He's the one who's always tryin' to be all high-and-mighty!"

"EXCUSE me- this has gone far enough!" Leonardo snapped, glaring at both of them. "You want to say something, little bro? 'Cause I'm all ears!" He nearly snarled. I glanced uncertainly at the suddenly belligerent trio; even Klunk looked up from his bowl, mewing nervously as he sensed the tension in the room.

"Guys, just ONCE could we have a meal without everyone at each others' throats?" Donnie complained, shaking his head in annoyance.

"Whatever. I'm done anyway," growled the eldest as he rose sharply, stalking over to the sink to toss in his dishes before heading into the dojo. Raphael shot their youngest sibling a dark look, then quickly followed suit. Mikey looked down at the remains of his breakfast sadly, shuffled to the trashcan and dumped the last few bites into it, then trailed slowly after the other two. "Thanks for makin' us breakfast, but I'm just not hungry anymore." He muttered sullenly.

I stared after all three, and finally turned to Donnie. "What was THAT all about?" I asked. "Looks like someone woke up angry today. Or maybe a couple of someones."

"It's complicated. We've been dealing with a few- uh, issues the last couple of weeks." He replied, taking a sip of his coffee.

"Issues? Anything I can help with?" I said, anxious to return harmony to the den. I hated it when they started arguing; not only did it mean that tempers flared, which almost always led to a fight breaking out, but it tended to disrupt practice as well.

Donatello snorted, nearly choking on his coffee. "Uh, no thanks. It's just something we have to deal with until it blows over. But you MIGHT want to keep the visits brief for the next few weeks. Unless you enjoy that sort of thing." He put away his dishes and left the kitchen, without saying more. I had to wonder- what the heck was going on?

"Ugh, when did my life turn into a bad episode of Babylon 5? I swear it's like a sci-fi soap opera around here sometimes…" I muttered, glancing down at Klunk as I finished my breakfast. He just looked up at me and purred.

True to my earlier fears, by the time I walked into the training room for the morning workout, the tension between the boys had somehow reached a fever pitch, and I could hear the voices raised in anger well before I set foot inside the room. I heard a crash- the rack with Raph's weights going over, from the sound- and several heavy thuds, mixed in with the shouts and deep growls from at least three of the brothers.

"When ya' gonna' get it through your head, bro? You're daydreamin' about somethin' that ain't NEVER gonna' happen!" That was Raphael, though who he was yelling at wasn't quite clear. "Give it UP already! We DON'T belong up there, an' we never WILL!"

"We just don't want to see you get into something you'll end up regretting later- WHY can't you SEE that?!" Leonardo added, in a tone that sounded almost as much desperate as angry.

"Since when did my personal life become everyone's business?! What are you now, my keepers? Last time I checked, there's no law against wantin' somethin' better than THIS! And you guys should talk- Raph's too busy playin' macho to ever get serious, and YOU- well, Leo, you've got NO room to be lecturin' ME about wanting somethin' you can't have. Does the name Lotus mean anything to you?!" Mikey spat back, his reply dripping with pure venom. There was a heartbeat of silence- and that's when the weight rack went over.

"Don't you EVER compare that to what you're doing now! What happened with Lotus was a completely different situation!" The eldest snapped, and as I peeked around the corner, I almost wished I hadn't. He had Mikey up against the wall, pinned in a vice-like hold, eyes blazing.

Michelangelo's voice was deceptively cool and quiet when he answered. "Yeah, REAL different. Or did you just forget that she tried to KILL us- TWICE! Anyway, I don't see HER here, do YOU? It's been- what, two and a half years?! And not one word in all that time. Not even an e-mail. Face it Leo- she AIN'T comin' back." That seemed to set his brother back, and Leonardo let go of him with a wounded look, stunned into silence.

"That was cold, bro. Real cold." Raphael growled softly, moving over to glare darkly at the youngest sibling, his golden eyes narrowed dangerously.

"He knows it's true. Not that it really matters. Anyway, what are YOU worried about?! You're the only one around here with even half a shot at ever gettin'-" Whatever he had been about to say was cut off by Raph's fist in his jaw.

"Son-of-a…! I'm gonna' KILL him, Leo!" Raph snarled, shoving his older brother aside as he hauled back for a second punch. But Mikey was ready for it this time, and simply ducked his head into his shell, leaving Raphael to hit the wall behind him. Even before the pain of the mis-thrown punch had a chance to register, he barreled into the hotheaded turtle like a charging bull, knocking him backward across the room into his punching bag.

Raph retaliated with a fist into his brother's side, slamming into the bridge of his shell hard enough to make cracks in the thin plates. Mikey hissed in pain and anger, dropping down onto his back to throw his bigger sibling into the wall head-first. The fight might have ended there, if it had been anyone else. But Raphael was both too tough and too stubborn to give up just because of a little thing like a concussion. He shot back up, leaping at Mikey with his face contorted by pure rage. He tackled his younger sibling with the full force of his weight.

Raph shoved him into a sparring pole, and then reached out to spin one of the arms into Mikey's throat, sending Michelangelo to his knees, doubled over choking from the blow to his windpipe. He coughed, spitting out blood, no doubt from having bitten his tongue. Even so, he wasn't down by any means. Even as Raph spun around for a kick to the head, Mikey ducked under it, and swept out a foot to his brother's other leg, knocking him back to the ground.

"Alright- that's IT!" He snarled, pouncing on his larger sibling like a tiger going for the kill. The other two stared in shock at the pair, too stunned to move, as he sat atop his brother and grabbed Raph by the back of his head with one hand, the other fist pounding into Raph's face again and again.

I decided I'd seen enough, and rushed into the dojo frantically. "Guys, DO something before they kill each other!"

That finally seemed to snap Leonardo out of his shocked stupor. He shook his head, and rushed over to yank his smaller brother away from his intended victim. He grabbed Mikey from behind by both arms, hoisting them up behind his back and dragging him off by sheer force, getting a head-butt to his jaw for his trouble. He ignored it, and merely pulled harder on his baby brother's arms until he howled in pain.

"STOP it, BOTH of you! Donnie, you and Orlene take Mikey and go calm him down! I'll deal with Raph- just get him out of here!" He shoved Mikey at their other sibling; Donatello grimaced, and nodded as we both took hold of the still-enraged turtle and half-led, half-carried him out of the training room. He flailed furiously, the feral rage in his gaze still locked on Raphael, who was sitting up slowly, dazed from having his head used as a punching bag by his normally laid-back sibling.

Raph's eyes glared up at his retreating brother, and he flipped back to his feet, charging back at Mikey once again- only to run into a living wall named Leo that suddenly stepped in his path. Raph attempted to dart around him, but the canny leader simply swept one leg out and tripped him, his arm slamming across Raph's neck as he pivoted around to put him in a choke-hold. He yanked his red-clad brother's left arm back behind him, and forced him down to his knees.

"Stand down, Raph! Don't make me put you under! Now CALM the hell down, or I'll MAKE you!" He squeezed his arm tighter around his hot-headed brother's throat for emphasis, until Raphael stopped struggling.

"You heard what that little shit said, Leo! Let go of me, so I can go pound some sense into him!" He snapped, twisting slightly to glare back at his leader.

"Yes, I heard. And I CHOOSE to ignore those jabs, because I know he didn't mean it. He's under a lot of strain right now- we ALL are. You gonna' let a little thing like instinct turn you back into a mindless animal?! Is THAT what we are?! GET A GRIP!" Whatever else he said was lost on me while I continued struggling with Mikey as Donatello and I dragged him into the kitchen toward Don's lab.

"TIME out, Mikey! So help me, if you don't get hold of yourself, I'll sedate you if I have to!" Donnie yelled, yanking the door to his lab open with one hand while pulling his brother along by the arm with the other. I followed, holding tight to Mikey's other arm, as he continued to strain against our hold on him. Once in the workshop, Donnie slammed the door shut, and shoved his sibling into the nearest table.

"Now, are you going to calm down? Or would you rather do this the hard way?!" He leveled a stony stare at Mikey, and I knew from the dangerous look in his eyes that he meant it. I'd rarely seen Donatello so angry, but I knew enough to realize that he was just as dangerous to cross as Leo or Raph when his ire was up. I could almost feel the aggression building like a thunderstorm in the room. Now it seemed to have taken hold of Donnie as well; he stood solidly planted between Mikey and the door, a stern look on his normally calm features. I began to wonder- had everyone gone completely mad? The aura of hostility filled the air like a heavy scent, musky and bitter.

Mikey made a move to barrel past him, growling in an almost animalistic rage. He swung at Don, who ducked the blow and threw up an arm to block the next one that followed. Great, I thought, now he was dragging Donnie into the fight, too! Instinctively, I moved to stop him, wrapping my arms around him from behind to pin his arms against his sides.

"Mikey, calm DOWN! What do you think you're DOING?!" I shouted desperately, trying to reach the part of him that was still rational- though whether he could hear me through the rage was anyone's guess. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten just how strong and quick he was, as he shrugged off the hold, grabbed my wrist, and threw me over his shoulder with ease before I even knew what he was doing. I hit the floor hard, my head slamming into Don's metal computer desk; I yelped in pain, my vision spinning dazedly.

Somehow, that seemed to snap him out of it. He paused, a startled look freezing him in his tracks. He turned to look my way, and I saw an expression of absolute shock slowly spread over his features, replacing the mindless fury with remorse. He gaped, realizing what he'd just done, and rushed over as I sat up, shaking my head to clear it.

"Orlene! I- I'm so SORRY! I d-didn't mean to-" He fell to his knees beside me, looking utterly horrified and ashamed. "Are you okay?" He reached out as if to touch me, but then slumped back, head down. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I'm really sorry."

"Wow, remind me to work on countering throws during our session! And maybe doing some speed exercises while I'm at it. I'm seeing stars!" I replied with a grimace. "Anyway, I think a better question right now is are YOU okay? What's gotten INTO you guys this morning?! Between you, Raph, and Leo, I'd swear this place is turning into a WWE Smack-down match!" I turned to Donnie, and gave him a puzzled look. "Just WHAT is going ON around here, anyway? Have you guys all gone nuts?"

Donnie glanced from me to Mikey and then turned to regard the door behind him thoughtfully. "No, but that might almost be preferable to the current situation. Sometimes I really HATE spring…" He muttered, shaking his head with a deep sigh. I was about to ask what he meant by that, when the door opened and Splinter stood in the doorway.

"Donatello, Michelangelo! What is all this ruckus, my sons?!" He barked out, thumping his walking stick on the floor loudly. He looked agitated, his bushy brows furrowed, tail lashing wildly. I heard the two turtles gulp, and they shrank back nervously. I had a feeling that someone was about to get thumped on the head by our stern-faced sensei. Few things are more worrisome than an angry five-foot tall rat with a heavy wooden stick….

"Sorry, Sensei- we, uh, there was a little argument, and things got out of hand. Leo's in the dojo trying to cool Raph down. He thought it best to separate Raph and Mikey before they both did something really stupid. Looks like it's gonna' be a LONG spring, if you get my drift." He sighed again, and I wondered what the season had to do with anything, but one look at Splinter, and I decided the question could wait.

Splinter's whiskers twitched as he sniffed the air, and suddenly his brows shot up. "Ah, so I see. Perhaps we should forego this morning's lesson, then. And this evening's, as well. I believe we could all use some relaxation, to relieve a bit of this tension. I suggest the four of you find something to occupy yourselves for the day- preferably AWAY from one another." He glared from Don to Mikey and back, before turning to leave the workshop. I could only assume he intended to deliver his message to the others, as well.

"Oh! I made breakfast for you, Master Splinter!" I said, before he shut the door. "It's waiting in the kitchen!"

He turned back for a moment, with a quick bow of acknowledgement, and smiled. "Arigato, mai-youjo."

As soon as he was gone, I turned to regard Don suspiciously. "Okay, you wanna' tell me what this is all about? What does spring have to do with anything?" I asked pointedly. Donatello looked at me with that same odd, flushed expression he always seemed to get when discussing uncomfortable subjects, and finally shrugged.

He surprised me by going over to a large bookshelf against the far wall, that was filled with various science textbooks, medical and technical references, books on biology, chemistry, physics, and everything in between. He tugged a volume from one of the shelves and walked back over, holding it out to me. "Here," he said, still looking flustered. "This should explain everything you might want to know- and THEN some. I'd suggest going over chapter six first; that should help you understand what's going on." I looked down, saw the book's title, and looked back at him questioningly. It read, "Raising Red-Ears: Care and Breeding of the Common Slider".

Mikey glanced over, and suddenly face palmed, groaning. "Oh, hell, Donnie- couldn't ya' just say it's a guy thing? Geez! I'm goin' to take my board out. I've got some serious tension to work off…." He rolled his eyes and yanked open the door, stalking out into the kitchen. The door swung back behind him with a loud slam. I could only assume he'd gone to his room to get his skateboard. I turned back to Donnie, but he just shook his head and followed the younger turtle out.

Finally, after staring down at the book for a few moments, I decided to pull a chair over to Donnie's desk, and sat down to see what was so important he thought I should read it. I flipped it open to chapter six, and suddenly felt a rush of heat rise to my face. "Reproduction and Mating"? I read the first couple of paragraphs, and then quickly snapped the book shut and stared at the closed door, a sinking feeling in my gut as I began to understand just what I'd walked into that morning…. "Oh, crap," I muttered to myself. "Mating season- he CAN'T be serious…." And yet, it all made perfect sense.

Splinter was in the kitchen a few minutes later when I left the lab with the book Don had loaned me, enjoying his breakfast. From beyond the doorway into the living room, I could hear the unmistakable sounds of someone hitting the punching bag in the dojo across from us. It had to be Raph, I decided. No one else could be that noisy boxing against an inanimate object. I poured myself a cup of coffee and sat beside Splinter for a few minutes of peace and quiet before heading off to the station for the day. April and I were scheduled to do a series of reports on the recent rise in gang fights- something I wasn't looking forward to, as I'd been a part of far too many of those fights of late. But at the moment, that was the last thing on my mind.

"Master Splinter, do you mind if I ask you a question?" I said hesitantly after a few moments.

He nodded, and his thin, gnarled hand moved to rest on mine. "Of course, Orlene-kun. What troubles you?"

"How long has this been going on? I mean, have they, you know, gone through this before? How do you deal with them when they're like this?" I asked.

The old rat sighed and closed his eyes for a moment in thought. "Yes, it began six years ago. It has been difficult at times, I admit. Raising four boys in such isolation has never been easy, and even less so since they became adolescents. I simply try to find ways to occupy their minds, and I purposely intensify their training at such times, to lessen the tension. It seems to help- most days." I noticed a sparkle of humor in the aging rat's eyes, and nodded. I knew what he meant.

"So how long are they going to be acting like barbarians?" I asked, taking a sip of the coffee. "It might be helpful to know how long it will be before those guys stop behaving like rutting bulls!" Splinter chuckled, then tapped the book in front of me.

"Unfortunately, we must endure their erratic tempers until the end of May. I have noticed that it lasts longer as they grow older, but that seems to be the longest that it occurs. However, I might suggest keeping contact strictly to your training for the time being- particularly with Michelangelo. He does not need the temptation at this time." His furry brow rose pointedly, and I knew exactly what he meant. It was a warning to keep my distance, and one I had no intention of ignoring.

"May, huh? Great- Don was right. This IS going to be a long spring." I grumbled. "Hai, Sensei, I understand perfectly." I finished my coffee, and bid him goodbye before I grabbed the book and left, heading to the news station for the day.

Later that day, I had lunch with April again, at a small Italian restaurant on the East Side. Irma Langenstein, Channel Six's long-time receptionist and a friend of April's, joined us, and we chatted over penne, stuffed mushrooms, and Caesar salads. The conversation had been light for the first few minutes, mostly having to do with normal "girl stuff" like hair, going shopping, and Irma's never-ending quest to find "Mr. Right".

We were halfway through the main course when Irma leaned closer to April and spoke in a quiet voice. "Hey, April, how are things going with the underground fight club?" She asked, glancing around cautiously. She gave me a look that said she was sharing some private talk with the vivacious red-head, which grated on my nerves for a moment- until I realized what she'd meant. I was surprised to realize that she not only knew about the turtles, but apparently, April had never bothered to tell me. I was beginning to wonder if EVERYONE at Channel Six knew of them, and why I'd never learned the secret until that fateful night in the alley.

April laughed. "Ask Orlene- SHE sees them more than I do! I didn't think it was possible for ANYONE to spend more time with those guys than me!" She said with a teasing smile. "Besides, I'm not too keen on hanging around with them when 'Spring Fever' hits, if you know what I mean."

I turned to regard our bespectacled co-worker incredulously. "You- you KNOW about them?!" I asked, surprised, before turning to shoot April a sour look. "And while we're on the subject, you could have TOLD me about that little detail! I just found out this morning, and believe me, it WASN'T a pleasant surprise!" Irma nodded and shrugged, as April tried hard not to laugh.

"Sure, I've known those boys almost as long as April has!" Irma replied with a giggle; then her head suddenly snapped to the right as she turned to watch a tall, well-dressed man enter. "Ooh, hunk approaching at three o'clock!" She announced, and I chuckled as she was distracted by the sight of a potential catch. She was predictable that way. She leaned sideways to watch him move to an empty table, her chin resting on her hand with her elbow on the table. "Why can't I ever meet a nice guy?" She asked no one in particular. It was a song we'd both heard many times before.

"Why don't you go over there and talk to him?" April asked encouragingly. "I keep telling you, you're never going to find the right guy if you don't take the initiative."

The shorter brunette gave her a sour look. "Uh-huh, that's easy for YOU to say- you've got that dreamy boyfriend Casey all roped and tied! All the guys I meet turn out to be jerks!" She sighed, and then turned to me. "Say, YOU don't happen to know any nice, eligible men, do you? Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever heard you mention a boyfriend. So how about it- anyone special in your life? And if there is, does he have a brother?"

I stared down at my food, as an uncomfortable silence fell over the table. I wasn't entirely certain how to answer the question, especially given what I'd recently discovered. However, the events of the morning- and the night before- still bothered me, so as usual when I had a problem, I turned to my best friend and confidant. "Well, now that you mention it, there IS someone who's interested, but I…" I paused, and pretended to suddenly be VERY focused on my lunch, while the two older women eyed me intently.

"I THOUGHT something was up with you lately. So who is he?" April prompted, leaning forward. "Anyone either of us knows?"

Irma leaned closer as well, nodding excitedly. "Ooh, DO tell! I wanna know all the details!" She chimed in, hoping for some juicy gossip. I picked at my penne nervously, wondering what to say.

"Um, yeah, you could say that," I hedged, glancing from April to Irma and back down to my plate. "Actually, you both do. And yes, he DOES have brothers."

"So what's he like? C'mon, spill it, girl" Irma said eagerly, her hazel eyes full of mirth. "Is he cute? And what are the brothers like? Are they single?" Ouch. She hadn't missed that part, apparently.

"Well- I'm not sure. I guess so, in his own way. To be honest, I've never really thought about it. And yeah, I'm pretty sure they're ALL single. And he's the youngest." I was afraid to say more, for fear that the pair would come unhinged when they found out just WHO I meant. I'd probably said too much already.

Finally April decided to prod me for more specific answers. "I get the feeling there's something you're not telling us. What's his name? Does he work at the station? If it's someone we know, you don't have to worry- WE won't reveal that you've got a crush!" She grinned at me wickedly, and I decided that I really hated nosy reporters at times. And April was one of the worst….

"No, it's not someone at Channel Six." I replied evasively. "And it's not MY crush," I added, correcting her. "Like I said, HE'S interested in ME. I'm still not entirely sure HOW I feel about him yet."

"Well, at least that rules Vernon out!" Irma laughed, and in spite of myself, I chuckled and nodded agreement.

"Ugh, are you kidding?! He's the LAST guy I'd ever want to date! He's such a whiney little attention-hound! And what's with the preening all the time? He's like a damned peacock. Um, thanks, but no thanks." I shook my head in disgust. "Hey, just who else DOES know about our hidden heroes, anyway? How many are IN on that little conspiracy?"

Irma was the one who answered. "Just me, Danny, and Vernon. Danny's young enough that no one would ever believe it, and Vern knows better than to talk. Not when he knows April and I would drag him kicking and screaming out of the closet!" She sniggered, and I glanced over at April with one brow raised.

"Wait- does that mean he's…." I began, only to burst out laughing when April flashed me a truly evil grin. I finally shrugged, grinning back at her. "That explains SO much!" I chortled. "The over-styled hair, those pink button-downs with the purple tie and suspenders…. My word, how can he think everyone doesn't already KNOW?!" I asked, hoping to keep them distracted. Unfortunately, it didn't work.

"Don't try to sidetrack ME, honey- I'm still waiting for a name." Damn. April was good- maybe TOO good. They both stared at me expectantly, and I finally sighed and gave up.

"Mikey. And before you even ask, YES, it's THAT Mikey." I glanced up, my fork frozen where I'd been pushing a mushroom around on the plate, as two pairs of eyes went wide as saucers, and two jaws dropped.

"Oh. My. God…" April murmured. I couldn't help but share her sentiment. What DOES one do when confronted with the fact that someone not even of one's own species has a serious infatuation on one? I still hadn't figured that out yet.

"Wow." Irma blinked at me owlishly from behind her enormous pink square-rimmed glasses, her expression telling me that I'd either hit a mother-load of a man-hunting jackpot, or I was scraping the bottom of the romance barrel. Maybe both. She simply stared at me in utter shock, and I wondered if I hadn't just opened a particularly nasty can of worms. "Never saw THAT coming. I don't believe it! On second thought, knowing Michelangelo, I DO believe it. He's such a charmer!" She giggled, and I sighed in relief at her ribbing.

"Oh, yes- VERY funny. I'm being serious here, girls! April, YOU know them better than anyone; what should I DO? Has anything like this ever happened before?" I asked, trying to hide the pleading tone in my voice. As an older woman and mentor, I respected her opinions and advice, and this was certainly one area where I felt she had more experience.

They both looked from me to each other, and there was another uncomfortable silence as April pointedly stared over at our companion for just an instant too long, while Irma simply picked up her fork and feigned interest in her food with a distinct flush to her cheeks. I caught a current of something going on that they didn't want to talk about. But I wasn't about to give up.

"Okay, you had your turn, now it's mine. Something's up- so SPILL!" I said, turning an intent stare on them. April stifled a giggle, and Irma just blushed even redder. I had the sudden thought that I needed to conscript April into helping me give her a complete make-over some day. For all her complaints about not being able to meet guys, I suspected that her somewhat frumpy, wallflower appearance might have something to do with it. I was tempted to find some pretext to get her into something other than those boring ankle-length pleated skirts and baggy sweaters. Sometimes I swear she reminds me of Velma, the nerdy member of the Scooby Gang. She'd even be pretty if she would just do something with her hair! I shook off the stray thoughts, and focused on April. "Well? What's the scoop? You obviously know SOMETHING!"

"Actually, it has. And not just with him, either- Leo and Raph both had it pretty bad too- and all three were head over heels for Irma!" She laughed, and I suddenly turned to gape at our friend as she continued, lowering her voice. "But they had a good excuse- Shredder doused a pizza with some kind of love potion during Fleet Week as a distraction from one of his schemes, and they ate it. Donatello was the only one who didn't have any, so he wasn't affected. But those boys were so smitten they started sending her all kinds of gifts as secret admirers!"

"Yeah, and I wasn't too happy to find out my three 'sailor hunks' were really turtles!" Irma added sourly. "The puppy was a really sweet gift, though! You know, I never DID find out which one sent my cute little Scrappy to me!"

"So THAT'S how you got your dog!" I laughed. "I've seen the picture on your desk, but I didn't know he came from THEM!" I thought for a moment, then added, "If I had to guess, I'd say it was Mikey. He's the animal-lover of the bunch. He doesn't know it, but I've seen him sneaking out to feed strays that show up around the abandoned garage where they keep the van."

"Yup, he's all heart!" April said, smiling. "Anyway, if you want MY advice, I'd say don't worry about it. He may be a hopeless romantic, but he's also got the attention span of a caffinated squirrel. It'll pass eventually." She took a sip of her latte, and shrugged.

"Oh, I don't know, I think it's kind of sweet. Sometimes I feel a little sorry for them, living like monks down there. Must be hard knowing you're the only members of your species, and all males and related besides. I wonder how they cope?" Irma mused, as she munched on the remains of her salad. I frowned, realizing she was right.

"I'm not so sure, April. I had a talk with Splinter last night, and he seems to think it's serious. Besides, I found some things in his sketchpad last night that make me believe this has been going on for a while now. He just hasn't said anything yet. Donnie was the one who first clued me in. And the other two have been arguing with him a LOT lately over something. I think they're upset about his interest- Leo keeps saying he's making a mistake. I don't think it's just some passing thing!" That was the most troubling part. If it was simply a mild infatuation, I could handle it- maybe- but if it really was serious? I wasn't sure if I was prepared for that kind of complication in my life.

"Well, I guess the only question in that case is how do YOU feel?" April replied sympathetically. "All kidding aside, maybe you should talk to him. After all, what's the worst that could happen?" She reached over and squeezed my hand and smiled. Why didn't that make me feel better? Somehow, I had a feeling I was going to find out…..


	10. Chapter 10

Well, things are really heating up in the old sewer den, and the fireworks are well underway. Tensions are at a fever-pitch between the boys, and to make matters worse, even Splinter gets involved. Throw in a run-in with some Mafia heavies- led by none other than OT baddie Big Louie- and you've got an EXPLOSIVE situation, LOL! And it ain't even April yet!

Out of the Frying Pan

Between the fight in the lair and dealing with Vernon's vain primping and obnoxious attempts to order me around all day at Channel Six, by the end of the day, I was ready to throw one of Raph's temper tantrums. Or maybe just throw Vernon through a sixth floor window at the station. Either would have worked for me.

I was still confused about the situation with Mikey, though, and so I spent a restless night tossing and turning, bothered by disturbingly sensual dreams. Not that I had any particular aversion to the idea, but I was keenly aware of the difficulties and limitations such a pairing would entail. There was the obvious issue of his physical differences, of course, but more than that, even the lifestyle the brothers had led made things difficult. They had little experience with the outside world, with most of their interactions with humans coming either in the form of shadowy rescues of innocent civilians, fights with criminals and thugs, or both. That was certainly no basis for a stable and lasting relationship.

On top of everything else, tensions rose every time I went down for practice now. Just being in the same room with four hormonally-charged boys whose wild mood swings and aggressive behavior were becoming dangerous was almost more than I could deal with. Splinter did his best to steer them toward productive outlets for the frustration they clearly felt. I felt partly to blame, since I was fairly certain that having me around didn't help matters any. Mikey especially seemed to have become a nervous wreck whenever I went down for my lessons. He had begun avoiding me, keeping his distance and partnering with Raph or Leo constantly, or simply sitting out until one of them was free. I had the feeling it wasn't because he wanted to, but because he was afraid to get too close. I also suspected that Splinter or Leo had something to do with it.

Donatello seemed to be the only one who wasn't constantly on edge, his calm demeanor a blessing in the sea of raging teen hormones. If he was bothered by my presence, it didn't show; I was beginning to wonder if he even had a libido, or if he was repressed emotionally. For that matter, I'd never even heard him express any interest in females at all. Whatever the reason, he seemed to be the only one I could spend time with outside the dojo without feeling like I was dangling a steak in front of a hungry tiger. Naturally, I found myself spending most of my time in the lair chatting with him in his workshop while he tinkered on various projects, helping out with minor tasks, and engaging in lively discussions on everything from astrophysics to cultural psychology.

The closer I got to Donnie, the more I started to notice dark looks from Mikey aimed at his genius sibling. Apparently, he was not immune to feelings of jealousy. Not that he had reason to be, of course- I knew Donnie would never try to horn in on his baby brother's territory. But Mikey didn't seem to accept that, and his hostility with all three of the others seemed to have formed a rift that was growing wider by the day.

One morning less than a week after my chat with April and Irma, the lair once again exploded into a fight- only this time it was all four of them. I'd overslept a bit and was late coming into the morning session, so I still don't know what precipitated the fight, but I can guess. What I walked into was a scene out of every kung-fu movie I'd ever seen. Mikey was facing off against all three of his siblings, and if looks could kill, they would have been in dire straits indeed.

"It's not enough for THOSE two to keep buttin' in where it's none of their business, but now you TOO, Donnie?! Et tu, Brutus?!" He growled, pointing at Don accusingly. "I thought you were on MY side! Traitor!"

"It's not LIKE that, Mikey! I'm not trying to steal anything from you!" Don's indignant reply echoed through the lair as I came into the living room. As much as I hated to eavesdrop on what was obviously a heated family argument, curiosity won out, and I crept closer, peeking into the training room cautiously.

"Hey, Earth to Mikey- NOBODY is after your girl! For that matter, YOU shouldn't be chasin' skirts, neither!" Raph shouted, tossing his sais down and stepping up to poke Mikey in the chest. "Do I haf'ta hand ya' a mirror to remind ya' of WHY that's a bad idea?!"

"Get outta' my face, bro," Mikey growled warningly. "Who're YOU to tell me what I shouldn't do? You think just 'cause you're older you can order me around? HUH?!" He shoved Raph back, then rounded on Donnie. "And don't give me that crap! I've SEEN how much time you've been spendin' with her, laughin' and talkin' all the time. You think I don't know what you're doin'?!"

Turning his back on Raphael was the wrong thing to do. Raph grabbed him by the arm and spun him back around, his fist coming up to connect with his brother's beak in a right hook that left me cringing. That was all it took. Before I could even grasp what had happened, they were tearing into each other; Don tried to pull Mikey off of his read-banded brother, only to get clobbered himself as Mikey lashed out at him, too. When Leo tried to step in, he got a roundhouse kick to his head from Mikey that sent him reeling back in shock.

"Stay outta' this, Leo!" He snarled, his tone challenging the eldest brother's authority. "WHY are you all AGAINST me?!" He shouted, as he ducked a punch from Raph and knocked Donnie down with a leg-sweep.

Leo shook his head, then his eyes went steely, narrowing to slits as he waded back into the fray. "Alright, THAT'S ENOUGH! I'm getting really tired of your attitude, Michelangelo! You wanna' screw up your life? Fine, but DON'T expect us to feel sorry for you when it blows up in your face!" He grabbed the youngest by his arm and heaved him into a practice dummy; Mikey crashed into it and sat up slowly, looking dazed. Then he shot back up and barreled into Leo like a freight train. They hit the wall with a thud, Leo taking the brunt of the impact on his shell. Raph wrapped his arms around his orange-clad sibling and hauled him backward, lifting Mikey off his feet. That proved to be a mistake, as Mikey proved when he shoved an elbow back into Raph's face. The bigger turtle grunted, and let go, growling angrily. Donnie tried to yank him down by his feet, but got kicked in the face for his trouble.

I sighed, knowing better than to get in the middle of THAT mess. Even if I tried, they'd never listen to reason in their present state. I could try to subdue them, of course- for all the good it would do- but then they'd just be right back at each others' throats again later. In any case, I knew there was no chance of stopping them- they obviously needed to work this out themselves. Between Mikey's misplaced jealousy of Don and the over-protective interference from Leo and Raph, I was utterly disgusted with all of them. And there were two more months of this to go….

I shook my head and slipped off into the kitchen to pour myself a cup of coffee. I sat for a few minutes listening to the ruckus coming from the training room- a loud cracking sound indicated someone's shell had connected with a brick wall, followed by a grunt of pain as either a foot or fist struck somebody's jaw. Then came the smacking sound of an arm blocking a strike, probably from a hand-chop. A thud told me of someone hitting the floor, followed by a fast flurry of strikes; a weapon rack toppled over and sent its contents clattering all over the floor- my mental inventory of what was going on in the dojo continued, the carnage having escalated into a free-for-all.

Eventually the din brought a shout from the back of the lair that made my hair stand on end. "BOYS! What is the meaning of this?!" I jumped up and dashed into the living room, just in time to intercept Splinter as he came rushing in from the bedroom area. His beady eyes blazed with paternal fury.

"Uh, Sensei, are you sure you want to go in there? They've all gone insane!" I asked, worried for his safety. I was afraid of what might happen if he should walk into Hurricane Hamato raging in the next room. He'd have been safer walking into a platoon of Foot robots unarmed and blindfolded, or so I thought. I should have known better.

"Remain out here- I will deal with my sons." He growled determinedly, and stalked confidently into the training room, walking stick gripped in one hand as if ready for battle. Something in his stance and tone suggested it would be a very one-sided fight, in spite of his age.

"That is ENOUGH, my sons! You will stop this nonsense NOW!" He barked out above the noise of kicks, grunts, roars, punches, and training equipment crashing to the floor, as he rapped the end of his walking stick against the floor loudly. His command apparently went unheard- either that, or they were simply too enraged to register the order.

I peered through the door in time to see Raphael slam a tonfa into Mikey's shoulder, while the youngest of the snarling boys was occupied grabbing Donnie's leg as he attempted a roundhouse kick. Mikey heaved his brainy sibling up and over his head, throwing him into Raph. The pair went crashing to the ground with startled yelps, landing in a pile of limbs and shells. Leo, meanwhile, waited until his brother was preoccupied with the other two. He ducked down low and swept the prankster's feet out from under him, knocking him onto his back; then he rabbit kicked Mikey across the floor to slide head-first into the wall. He rolled away with a groan, shaking his head before rushing back in to kick Raph's punching bag into his leader's face. Leo staggered back, his nose bloodied, and hissed at his brother in fury.

"Did you not hear me?! I said ENOUGH!" Splinter exploded into action with a blinding speed I'd not known he possessed. He leapt up and flew at Leo, striking out with a snap-kick that sent the eldest crashing into the corner with a heavy thud. Leo groaned, but didn't get up. Splinter had barely landed when he rushed at Mikey, who had just tackled both his other siblings at once, kicking out at Don while he snapped his palm up into Raph's throat, knocking the breath out of the biggest turtle. Raph doubled over wheezing, and Donnie landed on his back, as the sparring pole teetered before falling on top of him. Mikey stepped into a defensive stance, glaring around wildly at the others- then caught the flash of movement as Splinter flipped up and over his head, his hand striking out like a snake at his youngest son's neck. Mikey was caught by surprise, and went down like a rag doll, eyes rolling back in his head as he was rendered unconscious by the jab at a vulnerable pressure point.

The others all groaned, slowly getting up, Raph still sputtering as he tried to catch his breath. "Man, what crawled up HIS butt?!" He muttered, glaring over at the crumpled heap of Mikey passed out on the floor. Leo rose unsteadily, then saw the look of stern anger on Splinter's face, and grew pale.

"Father! I- I beg forgiveness, Sensei. I tried to stop this, but I…." His gaze fell, ashamed that he had failed to return order to the family. He moved to stand before Splinter, bowing low with his fists up, clasped one over the other in a gesture of obedience, not daring to look up into his father's stern gaze.

"Suck up," muttered Raphael sourly. Leo shot him a dark glare with his teeth bared, a silent warning to his brother.

"Raphael!" Splinter barked warningly. His hot-headed son lowered his head obediently, looking chagrined.

Donatello's gaze flicked from one to the other, and back to their furious sensei, and sighed. He finally moved over to bend down and nudge Mikey, who moaned softly as he slowly sat up, blinking in confusion. "Get up, little bro. Your little temper tantrum just got us all in deep poo. Thanks a HEAP." He said in a disgusted tone.

Michelangelo looked up and saw Splinter's harsh stare aimed at them, and shrunk down in remorse. "Sorry, Sensei. Guess this means we're in big trouble, right?" He asked, only to receive glares from the other three.

Splinter nodded and bared his teeth angrily, his tail waving in agitation as he rapped his impertinent son on the head with his cane. "That is correct, Michelangelo. I am MOST disappointed in all of you. You are all forbidden from leaving our home until further notice. Instead, you will spend your time in training, meditation, and doing chores. In addition, there will be NO games and no television for a week. Perhaps this will teach you to behave in a more civilized manner. Now, I suggest you all begin by meditating on the meaning of discipline and self-control. That is an ORDER." His tone and expression warned that he would tolerate no disobedience or back-talk. Without another word, he turned and left the dojo, hobbling into the kitchen for his morning cup of tea.

"Way to go, jerk face," Raph muttered sourly after Splinter had left. "This is all YOUR fault. Ya' just HAD to throw a hissy-fit, didn't ya'?"

"MY fault?! YOU started it!" Mikey growled back, stepping up until he and Raph were nose to nose. "And consider that shot to the throat paybacks for last time, dude." He shot his sibling a cocky smirk, as if daring him to continue the war of words.

"Guys-" Donnie hissed, getting annoyed. "You want Splinter to come back in here? Just drop it, okay?"

"He's right," Leo added in his "I'm in charge" tone. "This ends NOW. Because if I have to step in again, neither of you is going to be getting up for a while when I'm done."

"Shut up, Fearless. This ain't about you, and I'd like to see ya' try!" Raph snapped back, his voice dropping into a deep growl. He glared defiantly at the leader, as if daring him to follow through on his threat. Leo looked as if about to comply, when I decided I'd had it with all of them.

"Okay, I've heard enough of this macho bullshit." I stepped into the room, shaking my head. Four heads swiveled to look my way with surprised expressions. "Can't you guys just do as you're told for once without arguing and playing the 'my dick's bigger than yours' game? Honestly, this is just ridiculous. What are you guys- five? I've seen kids in elementary school more mature than you four." I said, exasperated.

All four stared at me, stunned for a moment, then glanced around at each other in uneasy silence. They had no response to the accusation, so they finally shuffled over to the meditation mats, and sat down, closing their eyes to obey Splinter's orders. I sighed and sat down to join them, wondering if my sanity would survive another two months of this. Somehow, I doubted it.

I wondered how long the grounding would last, given the restless and rebellious nature of my four "brothers". I wasn't especially concerned about Leo- I knew he would never disobey a direct order from our Sensei without a VERY good reason. The others, though? Not so much. Raph was the one to watch, of course, with his constant need to exert his independence and his habit of sneaking off alone. Sometimes I wonder why he feels the need to challenge Leo all the time. They argue and fight so much, one might think they hated each other. And then there was the ill-kept secret of his activities as the so-called "Nightwatcher", an armored vigilante persona he sometimes used when out on patrols with Casey. Together, they made a very intimidating pair that had scared the daylights out of more than a few petty crooks.

Donatello hardly needed any supervision, since he mostly kept to himself and occupied himself in his workshop when not practicing, meditating, or helping clean up as Splinter had ordered. He seemed content to stay out of the way of his more belligerent siblings, keeping himself busy with various projects to direct his pent-up energy into something productive.

Mikey, on the other hand, was growing more restless and fidgety as boredom from the enforced confinement took its toll on him. With few distractions available, after only two days, he seemed ready to snap. Leo had suggested he read some of his comics, but even that diversion soon palled, and he instead took to scribbling furiously in his sketchbook. Unable to even go out with his board to skate the sewer tunnels, his only other outlet seemed to be pulling pranks on his brothers at every opportunity. The sofa seemed to have sprouted a permanent Bronx cheer from his whoopee cushion finding its way under the thread-bare seats, and I arrived the second morning after their grounding to hear Raph threatening to turn him inside out if his bed was short-sheeted again. Rubber snakes in Leo's room- which was how I learned our "Fearless" was actually phobic of snakes- tripping the breaker to Don's lab at inopportune moments, or turning off the water heater so their showers ran ice-cold; it seemed nothing was beneath his devious mind to try. He even went so far as to switch the salt and sugar canisters, so that when the others made coffee, they ended up with a salty mess that was undrinkable. Naturally, none of them seemed to think it was funny. And so it went.

By the third day, even I was getting tired of his juvenile antics. I was almost thankful when April called that evening to inform the boys that Casey had heard word on the street of an impending rendezvous involving Big Louie, one of the city's Mob kingpins. Leo argued against getting involved at first, citing Splinter's strict orders not to leave the lair. Raphael, of course, refused to take no for an answer, and said he'd go by himself if he had to. Having no such restrictions, I offered to go with him, and he nodded and clapped me on the back.

"Atta-girl! Let's go kick some butt, sis!" He said with a wicked grin, prompting Mikey to volunteer as well, to no one's surprise. Leo tried to protest, reminding them of their grounding, but Raph just gave him a cool smirk and told him he could stay behind and play the good little son if he wanted, but he and Mikey needed to get OUT. And then Mikey tossed him a sly grin and said maybe he should go along to keep an eye on them- just to make sure they didn't get into any trouble. Donnie sent his little brother a narrow stare, evidently sensing that he was pushing Leo's protective leader button, but he said nothing.

In the end, Leo capitulated and agreed that if we were intent on risking our necks against Splinter's orders, then we might as well go all or nothing, and it was settled. Donatello muttered something about being in hot water when this was over, but he didn't argue. In truth, I think he was as anxious to go topside and stretch his legs as the rest of us. Mikey and Raph were especially hyped, having felt cramped for too long underground, with far too little to occupy themselves. After a quick foray into the dojo for our weapons, we high-tailed it to the garage and piled into the van. Within minutes, we were heading for the location Casey had given us- a condemned office building scheduled for demolition the next day.

On the way there, we speculated on what sort of business Big Louie would be conducting in an abandoned seven-story office complex. Donatello thought something sounded off about the entire affair, and Leo agreed, even suggesting that it could be a trap. I thought he was being paranoid, and pointed out that the mob boss had no way of knowing we even knew about the get-together, but Leo was nothing if not careful. Raph was more inclined to believe that some kind of shady deal was about to go down, perhaps a drug trade or arms deal. None of the prospects sounded good.

When we arrived at the place, Leo parked the van around a street corner a block from the location, and ordered a full recon of the area. Sure enough, the outside of the office complex was crawling with Mob goons, all trying far too hard to hide the fact that they were armed. The immediate neighborhood was quiet- perhaps too much so, the street suspiciously empty of anyone but Louie's men, and the lights were out in most of the surrounding buildings. Clearly, something big was up- something that no one wanted to be around for.

We decided to go in from the rooftops, which were likely to be less well-guarded, and used a fire-escape two buildings up from the one we sought to reach our destination. We were fortunate to discover that the lights were on inside on the top floor, and several windows were busted out, giving us clear line-of-sight of what was going down inside. And what we saw was beyond our worst expectations.

Though we couldn't hear what was said, it was clear that Louie was upset with someone- or several someones, as it turned out. I assumed that it was Louie who was standing in front of the row of five men down on their knees with their hands tied, while several of his men stood behind them with guns pointed at their backs. I'd never seen the Mobster, but who else could it have been? The man in the suit and snazzy hat and tie was obviously yelling at the men kneeling before him, and even backhanded one of them when he said something in reply. After a moment, he just looked at them in disgust and turned away with a wave of his hand. I winced as we heard the loud crack of shots being fired- and the five men on the floor fell over dead.

"Leo… They just- those guys just got…. Dude, they EXECUTED those guys!" Mikey sounded horrified, and I glanced over to see a look on his face that made my heart ache. I felt much the same. Raph simply looked angry, and Donnie wore a look of sad resignation. Even Leo appeared momentarily stunned.

"We're not gonna' let those bastards get away with that- ARE we?" Raph asked his brother, turning to glance at Leo. The rest of us looked at him expectantly, and he sighed, and finally shook his head.

"No. We're NOT. I don't know who those guys were, but they didn't deserve that. Those assholes are going down." He rose, and unsheathed his blades with a look of determination on his face. "Raph, you and Don take the left flank. Mikey and Orlene- you're on right. I'll take point. We swing down on my signal. Got it?" We all nodded, and they threw out grapple-lines to the roof of our target. Michelangelo slid an arm around me, since I didn't have one, and gave me a half-hearted smile and wink.

"Heh, me Tarzan, you Jane. Guess we're a couple of real swingers, eh?" He said, trying to sound casual. But I could tell he was upset by the cold-blooded murder of five men. Then Leo yelled "Now!" and we jumped out into the empty air.

I braced myself as we swung across to crash through the broken windows of the top floor with our weapons drawn and ready, right into the midst of Big Louie and his goons. We hit the glass feet first with a noise that would have roused the dead, and landed behind the line of gun-toting enforcers. Raph and Don landed near the opposite end of the large empty room, with Leo dropping down right in front of Louie himself. Without a moment's pause, we struck like vipers, while the surprised mobsters were still stunned from our entrance.

Mikey had let go of me the instant we hit the floor, and I dived low and swept out the chain of my kusari-gama to take the legs out from under the nearest gunman. He held onto his weapon, though, and fired in my direction, cursing in Italian. Fortunately, he was a poor shot from his awkward position on the floor, but it forced me to roll away, giving him time to regain his feet. Raph and Donnie were busy with a pair of gunmen who had been guarding the stairs to the roof, dodging a hail of bullets while they sought an opening. Leo had closed with Louie, his twin katanas cutting through the barrel of the gang leader's gun like butter. He dropped the useless weapon, and pulled out a large knife instead. Now they faced off, the gangster staying just out of reach of Leonardo's deadly blades while two of his thugs fired on our own leader.

The shooting brought three more of Louie's men from the roof, and I started to wonder if we should have hit the roof first instead and taken them down before tackling the main group head-on. I made a mental note to discuss tactics with Leo later- assuming we got out of this. Donnie had disarmed one of his opponents, but one of the new arrivals began to fire at him, keeping my brainy companion from finishing off the first goon. The other two newcomers were keeping Raph occupied, forcing both of them to stay on the defensive.

The rest of the gunmen had divided their attention between Leo, Mikey, and me. This wasn't going as well as I'd hoped, to be sure. I just hoped they would run out of bullets soon; then we could take them down when they stopped to reload. The only drawback to that plan was trying NOT to get hit in the meantime. I whipped my chain out again, this time snapping the gun from the hand of the one I'd tripped before. It clattered and skidded across the hard floor, and he bared his teeth and charged straight at me. Good, I thought- finally something was going our way! At least, I thought so until he reached into his trench coat and drew what I immediately recognized as a tanto, a short-bladed sword similar to the much longer ones Leo used. Great- I HAD to get the one mobster in the room who probably knew martial arts.

Sure enough, he ducked under the swipe I took with the blade of my kusari-gama, and blocked the second swing with his own blade. I swept at his legs again, but he was ready for it this time, and countered with a punch aimed at my head. I leaned aside, and he missed me by an inch. Okay, jack-ass, I thought, if you don't mind hitting a female, then you better hope she doesn't hit back. Too bad for him, I DID. I sliced out with the sickle-blade, and he parried, just as I'd hoped. I leapt up and kicked him in the face; he fell back to the floor, dazed, his nose broken. I finished him off with a second kick to his mid-section that left him curled up around what I guessed must be several cracked ribs. He wouldn't be getting back up for a while.

Meanwhile, Michelangelo was busy playing dodge ball with flying bullets, with himself as the target. He popped his head down into his shell as one whizzed by on a path that would have hit him between the eyes. Clearly, being a mutant turtle had certain advantages. He bounced around like an oversized green pinball, before finally tucking into a roll that sent him right into the legs of two of the goons, knocking them down.

He shot up like a rocket and whirled around to finish one off with a spin-kick, yelling, "Oh, yeah- just picked up a spare! I LOVE bowling for mobsters!" I rolled my eyes, and dived away from a shot that had nearly parted my hair.

"Focus, Mikey!" Leo shouted from the middle of the room, where he was slowly advancing on Louie, in spite of the shots being aimed his way by three of the goons. He didn't even pause to glance our way- he simply issued his warning and continued to move on the main threat.

And then everything went to hell in a hand basket. So far, we'd managed to take down three of the men, but I heard shouts coming from the stairwell leading down into the lower floors, and realized that more goons were on the way up. We were already outgunned and outnumbered- and with all of us spread out, there was no way we could avoid taking casualties if we got cornered by a bunch of gangsters with fresh clips. We needed to even the odds, and FAST.

"Leo, we've got more company coming! What do we do now?!" I called out as I slammed the door to the stairwell and locked it. He didn't even glance my way as he sliced another mobster's gun in half, leaving the hetman to fall back while he pulled a large knife from under his suit jacket. Leonardo just gave him a cocky smirk and shook his head as he slapped it aside with one katana, and used the flat of the other blade to sweep his opponent off his feet. A kick in the ribs finished the job, and the goon groaned in pain as he rolled onto his side.

"You heard the lady- let's finish this FAST! Step it up, guys!" Leo shouted, rallying his brothers. Raph didn't need to be told twice- he grinned wickedly at his opponent, and charged him head-on, heedless of the gun in the man's hand. It went off, but the goon hadn't counted on Raphael's speed, or the fact that he dived low and tackled the man's feet. He slammed the pommel of one sai into the mobster's head, and leapt up to seek a new target. The one he'd hit was lying senseless on the floor.

Louie looked around at the four strange creatures mopping the floor with his men- not to mention one crazed female with a bladed chain- and snarled angrily. "I don't know who you weirdos are, but NOBODY interferes with my business and gets away with it! I'm puttin' ALL of yous on ice!" He drew something out of his pocket, and though I only caught a quick glance, I saw him press a button on a small black object that resembled a remote of some sort. A moment later, I heard soft beeps from all around the room, as blinking red lights came on at the base of each of the support beams on that level. A sudden sense of dread filled me, and my suspicions were confirmed a moment later, when Raph called out worriedly. "Uh, bros- I think he just armed the detonators to blow this place! We got about five minutes to get the Hell outta' here!"

Donatello cursed, dropping down to launch himself into one of the men, knocking him down. A quick jab to the groin ensured he wouldn't be getting up any time soon. He rose and spun his bo in a wide arc at two more, who had just discovered that their guns were empty. They ducked under the swing, but he quickly reversed his attack. He smiled at the pair cheerily, before clocking them both in the throat. They went down gasping, and he kicked their guns across the room. "Didn't anyone teach you jerks it's not nice to point?" He asked cheekily. He hurried over to the nearest charge, and called out anxiously. "Raph's right! These things are all set to go off!"

"Can you disarm them?" Leo called back, as another goon charged at him. He spun aside, slapping the man in the back with both blades as he barreled past, then tackled him from behind, thumping him on the head with the pommels of both swords.

"Not without that remote!" Donnie answered. I saw Louie slinking off behind two of his men, edging his way toward some busted windows on the opposite side- where the fire escape was. Donnie saw him too, and shouted to Leo. "Quick, get him before he gets way! We've GOT to get that remote!"

"On it!" Raph growled, slamming into a goon as he charged after the boss. He threw a sai at Louie, but it only knocked off his hat and pinned it to the wall. Raph leapt over another thug in his way, kicking out behind him to send the gangster sprawling, and continued his pursuit. Unfortunately, Louie had already made it out the window, and was racing down the fire escape, two more goons right behind him to cover their boss.

Just then, the stairwell door flew open, the lock busted by the men from below. I counted seven mobsters on the stairs, all of them fully armed. I swung the blade of my weapon into their midst causing them to fall back a few steps to avoid being sliced, but I knew I couldn't hold them off for long. "Mikey, we've got party-crashers! Give me a hand over here, will you?!" I yelled, pushing them back down the stairs with another swing into the doorway. The last thing we needed now was more distractions.

Mikey dove low, and sped across the floor on his shell, straight for the open door. "Excuse me, coming through!" He yelled, just before he shot into the middle of the group bottlenecked on the stairs. They went tumbling back, and I jumped down after them, though I quickly realized that my weapon would be useless in such close quarters. I decided it was time to switch off, and tucked it into my belt, wrapping the chain loosely around my waist before winding the end around the handle.

Mikey got up from the fallen thugs, grinning like a Cheshire Cat. "Hi, the name's Mike, I'll be your bouncer this evening," He joked, then hopped over the rail to the landing below. "Hey, what do you call a wiener dog on a pizza?" He said, getting their attention as they started to rise. "Give up? Pupperoni!"

I groaned at the bad joke, but it seemed to have the desired effect. All seven of the goons suddenly turned their wrath on my companion, leaving their backs open to me. Unfortunately, this bunch also still had guns, and decided to turn them on Mikey. He seemed to realize his mistake, and let out a high-pitched scream like a little girl before diving down to the next landing to avoid the shots aimed at his head.

"Geez! Don't you guys have a sense of humor?!" He yelled frantically, only to be answered with more shots. "Guess not," he said, poking his head over the side to make a face at the thugs, taunting them. He ducked back below, and hopped down to the fifth floor landing. "Hey, garlic-breath! Sinatra was a HACK!" He called up, prompting several curses.

"Dear, God- is he TRYING to get himself killed?!" I muttered, and kicked out at the one in the back. He stumbled into the others, and the resulting pile-up brought more curses. "Did you forget about me? Let me remind you!" I grinned, knocking them further down the stairs with a second kick. Two of the mob-men turned on me, and I vaulted over the side of the stairs and down to the next level. "I think we got their attention!" I shouted, ducking behind the low side-wall as they opened fire again.

"Gee, what gave you THAT idea?!" Mikey yelled back over the hail of bullets. Then we heard a series of clicks, and I swung over the side and down to join him; he wore a smug grin, glancing up toward the sound of empty clips being tossed aside. "Think they have more bullets?" He asked hopefully. A round of cursing in Italian suggested that they were out. I took that as a good sign- at least until I heard more thugs coming up from below us. "Son of a snapper! Can't we catch a break?" Mikey complained, looking down to see at least five more of Big Louie's boys heading up the stairs toward us.

"Whose bright idea was this, again?" I asked rhetorically, and he let out a groan and sighed.

"That would be Raph. Remind me to kick his shell when we get home!" He said, as he busted open the door leading to the fifth floor.

"Duly noted, and seconded," I replied with a grimace. Trapped in the confines of the stairwell between two groups of angry mobsters was certainly NOT how I wanted to go out. "Heck, I say we take turns. And while we're at it, I'd like to suggest a better head-count next time before we dive in head-first. If I didn't know better, I'd swear that guy brought along his entire gang!"

"Sure looks like it," Mikey agreed, as we backed out into the large empty space that had once held perhaps twenty or so office cubicles, to judge by the number of square-shaped division lines on the floor. We moved further in toward the middle of the open space, seeking more room to maneuver.

Things were not looking good. First we'd been separated from the others during the fight with Big Louie's wise-guys, and now we found ourselves stuck on the fifth floor of the condemned office building, with a dozen armed Mafia enforcers between us and the way out. And to make matters worse, Big Louie had set the detonator's timer to go off in less than five minutes.

"Looks like we better make this a quick fight, 'cause we don't have time to get fancy!" Mikey called back over his shoulder, as I moved to guard his back. I switched from my kusari-gama to the pair of gunsen I kept in the back pocket of my jeans, flipping them out and falling easily into a defensive stance.

"Hey fellas- looky here! This dame thinks she can fight us with her little fans!" One of the mobsters said derisively, as they moved to surround us. The others chuckled their agreement, flicking out switchblades, brass knuckles, and stilettos. One had a tazer out, and another was slapping a police night-stick against the palm of one hand.

"Uh, dude, you shouldn't have SAID that! I would NOT wanna be YOU right now!" Mikey said, grinning wickedly as he started his 'chucks spinning.

"You got THAT right," I said, nodding. I eyed the apparent leader coolly, ready to take him down first, just on principle. The crack about my gunsen had pissed me off. Okay, maybe Raph's temper is starting to rub off on me. I think I need a hobby…..

"I don't know what you ARE, freak, but you're one UGLY-lookin' brute." The guy with the night-stick said, staring at Mikey suspiciously. He was surprisingly unafraid for someone who had just encountered his first mutant terrapin. Maybe he thought my partner was wearing a costume.

"Geez, what's WITH people these days? Are you BLIND, or just freakin' stupid?! That shell ain't just for looks, ya' know!" Mikey suddenly exclaimed in annoyance. I could understand his frustration, even though I didn't see much point in correcting the gangsters. "Say it with me, dude- TUR-TLE. I'M. A. TURTLE. YOU. IDIOT!" He shot forward, lunging at the man with the night-stick with lightening speed. The man staggered back in surprise, bringing his weapon up to swing at Mikey, who nimbly changed direction in mid-step, pivoting and spinning aside to crack one of his nunchaku into the mobster's hand. The goon dropped his stick with a cry of pain, and his expression changed to one of fear as he cradled his now broken hand. Mikey followed up with a second crack from the other one, aimed at his midsection. I heard the distinct sound of ribs cracking, and the man doubled over with a yell.

Mikey spun to face a pair of thugs armed with stilettos. They were huge- over six and a half feet tall apiece, identical in appearance, with fists the size of small hams and more muscles than a seafood buffet. They lunged at him, but he ducked low and dodged between them, snapping his 'chucks out at both at once. They grunted in pain, but kept coming at him. He spun one pair of sticks in front of him to block their next attack; then he swung the other pair in an arc at the one on his right, entangling the big man's blade. He yanked back, pulling it from the thug's grasp. The stiletto fell to the floor, and Mikey kept the first pair of sticks spinning as he jump-kicked out at the man's head. The big guy fell backward with a heavy thud.

The enforcer's partner made another lunge, but he was far too slow for the nimble mutant. He missed, and ended up with Michelangelo's nunchaku whacking into his arm with a crack that indicated the bones had just been broken. He dropped the blade, growling his anger, and my companion pressed the attack and leapt into a spin-kick that knocked the second goon out cold. Mikey was making this look entirely TOO easy, I thought with envy, as I faced off against the goon with the tazer.

The mobster lunged at me, attempting to stun me with his tazer. Instead, I knocked it aside with one weapon, and followed up with a snap kick to his groin. He stumbled back, momentarily forgetting the tazer in his hand as he fell to his knees trying to cover his injured jewels. The result was both predictable and amusing.

"Serves you right, moron," I said as he fell over in uncontrollable spasms. I noted with grim satisfaction that he'd lost control of his bodily functions.

Then I heard a low, threatening mutter from behind me. "You gonna' PAY for that, little girl. Big Louie don't like folks stickin' their noses in his business. Now I'm gonna' make you disappear." It was the one I'd pegged as the leader of this bunch, wielding a pair of butterfly knives that looked wickedly sharp. I glanced over at Mikey out of the corner of my eyes, but he was engaged with a goon swinging at him with brass knuckles, leaving me on my own with the big leader. The head enforcer grinned at me, perhaps thinking he could intimidate me. Maybe if I hadn't already faced down a power-mad psycho named Oruku Saki and lived, it might have worked. As it was, he was out of luck.

"Disappear? You mean like THIS?" I asked, and whipped out an egg bomb, tossing it down between us. It broke open, spilling out its contents in a thick cloud of smoke. He fell back, choking, and I darted around behind a support pillar to flank him. He looked around as he backed out of the smoke cloud, his dark eyes narrowed in anger.

"You think you're clever, don't ya', little girl? I'm gonna' teach ya' a lesson you won't NEVER forget!" He promised, scanning the area for me. I peeked around the pillar, and smiled. He was looking the other way; I wasn't going to give him the chance to carry out his threat.

I leapt out from the cover with a flying kick aimed at his middle, the sound of my yell startling the mobster. He half-turned to face me, only to see my fans slicing across at his arms. He raised his blades to block the razor-edged weapons as my foot connected with his side. He went sliding across the bare concrete floor, caught off guard by the attack. But it didn't last long; he was up and rushing at me in an instant, slashing out with his butterfly knives. I held the fans up as shields, blocking the blows, then flipped them sideways to slash at his front. He jerked back out of reach, and for the first time, he got a close look at my weapons. His eyes widened as he seemed to realize that they were more deadly than he had believed.

"What were you saying, again? YOU'RE the one who needs a lesson, pal!" I taunted, my left fan up to parry his blades while the right sliced close enough to sever his tie. He let out a curse in Italian, which I was pretty sure was some kind of reference to my parentage. I bared my teeth at him, and ducked under his next attack, before rolling aside and rising to deliver a spin-kick to the back of his head. He stumbled forward, and I kicked out again to send him face-first into the pillar. He groaned, spitting out blood, and slashed out wildly with the knives. I snapped my fans shut on them and twisted, yanking the blades from his hands. He snarled out another curse, but decided he'd had enough, and turned tail.

"This ain't over, bitch! You an' that green freak are gonna' regret stickin' your noses in Big Louie's business!" He snarled as he made his retreat. "Boys, let's leave these two for the clean-up crew!" He yelled over at his companions, and pulled something from a coat pocket. He and the other mobsters pulled back, picking up their fallen comrades as they went. When they had retreated to the door, he pressed down on the object in his hand, and tossed it toward us. Mikey's eyes widened, as he made a dive to shove me out of the way of what I belatedly realized was some sort of explosive. It bounced once- and then went off.

The resulting blast was relatively small, but powerful enough to knock the support pillars out. Mikey and I were just at the edge of the blast, but we were never-the-less hit by flying debris from the pillars. Without them, the ceiling groaned and shuddered for a moment, and then came tumbling down around us. I screamed as the floor above us came crashing down, and he grabbed me and shoved me down to the floor on my knees; he curled himself around me in a half-crouch with his shell acting as a shield against the falling rubble. It felt like the world was coming to an end, and I clasped at my green-skinned protector anxiously, until it was over. When the last tremors had passed and the dust cleared, we were half-buried under a mound of plaster, wood, reinforcement bars, and shattered cinder blocks.

"Well, THAT could have gone better," Mikey muttered, coughing as he struggled to rise from under the pile of rubble. I looked up at him, covered in grey dust and slivers of wood, and noticed a gash across his forehead just above the left brow ridge. He shook himself, dislodging a couple of busted two-by-fours and a chunk of the nearest wall that had fallen in.

"Ugh, you can say THAT again," I agreed, as he slowly stood and pulled me up with him.

"Well, THAT could have gone better," he repeated, in an attempt at humor. I cuffed him across the arm with a glare.

"Not funny. Those jerks got away!" I fumed. "This is JUST peachy. We're going to get reamed for this when Leo finds out. You're bleeding, by the way." I dusted myself off, and shook tiny bits of cinder blocks out of my hair. I was definitely going to need a shower after this.

"Welcome to my world. Don't sweat it- it's nothin' new. He'll fuss for a while, and probably lecture us on being prepared for the unexpected, blah, blah, blah…. But he'll get over it." He sighed, and felt of his head. "Ouch. Well, at least it's not too deep. I hate gettin' scars- they ruin my good looks!" He quipped, grinning.

I rolled my eyes, but decided two could play that game. "Well, then I guess you must have had a lot of them, 'cause they were ruined a LONG time ago!" I said playfully. "I mean, I've heard of faces only a mother could love, but yours didn't even stick around until you hatched! She must've known how you'd turn out," I giggled. He started to protest, a look of mock pain on his face, and I laughed harder.

"Aw, gee, THANKS, dudette. Way to kick a guy when he's down," he said indignantly. We exchanged a glance, and suddenly both fell into a fit of laughter. At last he sighed, still wiping dust from his face and arms, and frowned. "Hey, why didn't that set off the demolition charges on this floor or the one above us? Shouldn't this whole level have gone ka-blooey?" He asked curiously.

I realized he was right, and started to wonder the same thing. "Maybe it wasn't big enough to detonate them? Where are they, anyway?" I mused, glancing around.

"Dunno, but Don would probably have a theory. And I think they're buried under all this mess, now," he added, gesturing to the debris. We both stopped to look around carefully, and I soon spotted something half-buried near the base of what remained of one of the support beams. Sure enough, as I made my way across the piles of rubble, I found a detonation charge connected to a block of what looked like plastic explosive. And the little timer on it was counting down, with less than a minute left.

"Mikey! We gotta' get out of here NOW!" I yelled back, and hurried back to him. I turned toward the doorway to the stairwell, only to find it blocked by steel girders and chunks of the ceiling above. "As soon as we figure out how…" I sighed, looking around for another means of escape. It suddenly occurred to me that this was exactly what the thugs had intended- for us to get trapped inside the building when it went down. I decided that I really hated Big Louie and his mob.

"What do we do now?" I asked, looking around anxiously. "There's no time to get that doorway cleared!"

Mikey raced over to the blocked passage, and began tossing aside bits of debris. He grabbed pieces of sheetrock and plywood and shoved them aside, then tugged on one of the larger chunks of rubble. "Like Hell there ain't! I think it's clear on the other side! Help me move some of this stuff- we'll make a hole and CRAWL out if we have to!"

I shook my head. "It's no good. I might be able to squeeze through, but what about you? Your shell is just to big! Most of that debris is too heavy to move enough for you to get through. We have to find another way!" I was getting really worried now. Time was running out.

He paused, and finally sighed. "Maybe you're right. Damn it, times like this I wish I wasn't so heavy in the back end. Okay, so if we can't get through here, maybe we can go OVER it?" I didn't understand his logic, until he looked up at the gaping hole in the ceiling above us. "Yeah- we go UP to get DOWN! Got it!" He whirled to me and pointed down at the weapon secured around my waist. "Your kusari-gama- we can use it as a grapple and climb up there!"

I wasn't so sure, but is was better than standing around waiting to be crushed under tons of steel, stone, glass, and plaster. I unwound it and started swinging the chain in an upward arc, the sharp sickle-blade flashing in the dim light from the windows. "Here goes nothing!" I said, and threw it up at the jagged rim of the hole nearest the doorway above. It caught, the blade biting into the edge of the floor above us. "Think it'll hold?" I asked uncertainly, tugging on it.

"It better- we don't have much time! Get your butt up there and hold it secure for me!" He ordered, pushing me toward the dangling chain. I grimaced, and began to shimmy up the hanging links.

"Since when do I take orders from YOU?" I complained, as he swatted my rump, trying to make me move faster. "Hey! Watch it, mister- unless you want me to leave you here!"

"Just hurry up, we're runnin' out of time! And since the others ain't here, that means I'M in charge, so MOVE IT!" He snapped. I frowned at the commanding tone, wondering what had made him go drill sergeant on me. Maybe it was the stress of the situation, but he sounded more like Leo than himself at the moment.

I hauled myself over the edge and rolled aside, glancing over to the doorway I'd climbed up to. "It's clear!" I yelled down, and grabbed hold of the handle of the blade embedded in the unstable floor. He started to climb, and I was surprised at the strength of his arms as he swiftly pulled himself up the chain. As soon as he was over the edge, I yanked the blade from the floor and helped him to his feet. I secured the weapon at my side again, and grabbed his hand, pulling him toward the door.

"Come on, we're almost out of time!" I shouted, kicking the door open. The stairwell was indeed clear down below, a small miracle for which I was thankful. I started to dash down the stairs- at least until I felt a muscular green arm slip around my waist and heft me up to sling me over a broad shoulder with practiced ease. "Hey! Mikey, put me DOWN!" I protested. I hated it when he did things like that; it made me feel like one of those wilting damsels in old movies, that the hero was always having to save from disaster. "I am NOT a sack of potatoes!"

"Sorry, babe, but this place is gonna blow, and I'm faster! Uh, no offense." He argued.

I had to admit he had a point. "That's funny, in a weird sort of way. Turtles aren't exactly known for their speed." I mused, as I bumped along over his shoulder. And yet, he WAS moving fast, even with a hefty burden- not that I'm particularly heavy as humans go, mind.

"Yeah, that's what the hare said, too. Anyway, you must be thinkin' of the land-bound kind. Us aquatic types are PLENTY quick!" He joked as he huffed his way to the stairs. I remembered that the boys had begun their lives as ordinary pet sliders, which I knew from experience could move with a fair bit of speed when necessary. Maybe he had something, there.

He jumped down to the landing, pivoted, and leapt down again to the next. He hop-scotched his way down four more flights, and hit the ground floor running. "Uh, might wanna cover your eyes, babe- gotta go through that window!" He warned, and I twisted to look back over my shoulder in time to see the aforementioned window rushing toward us. I quickly put my arms up over my head and squeezed my eyes shut, just as he launched himself at the window. We crashed through it in a shower of glass, and he landed outside with a grunt and a soft thud, pausing only a moment to shake glass off himself before he continued his mad dash.

Then the whole building blew, sending a fireball rocketing in all directions. The shock-wave of the explosion threw us nearly a dozen feet; I screamed, and curled into a tight ball instinctively as he pulled me off his shoulder and down to the ground, tucking his head into his shell and drawing his arms and legs in close around me to make a shield of his own body. Considering his hide was a lot thicker and tougher, I wasn't complaining.

When the blast subsided, I cautiously looked up, as he slowly drew back out of his shell, a concerned expression furrowing his brow. "You okay?" He asked, blinking smoke out of his eyes.

"I never get used to seeing you guys do that," I said, nodding in reply to his query. "If it wasn't for things like that, sometimes I could almost forget you're still animals!"

"Make that PARTY animals, baby!" He quipped, grinning. I took his jocular tone to mean that he was fine. "C'mon, let's get outta' here before the cops show up." He said as we got up off the pavement. I was inclined to agree. I didn't want to explain to the NYPD what I was doing outside an abandoned building that had just been blown up. We made a swift retreat to the nearest manhole, and slipped down into it just as we heard sirens approaching.

Once safely back in the sewers, he slipped his shell-cell out, and pushed the button to call his brothers. He got Leo on the line. "Hey, you guys okay? The building just went down- did you catch Louie?" He asked, rattling off the questions in a rush.

"No- he and those two heavies of his jumped in a car once they got to the street. Please tell me you two at least managed to get a few of those creeps!" Leo replied sourly. I glanced at the small screen on the communicator, and saw a look of utter disgust on his face.

"Sorry- there were too many, and one of 'em had a grenade of some sort. We almost got trapped in there! They got away. Where are you guys?" Mikey said, slumping in defeat. So far it looked like the mobsters had gotten away clean, leaving us with nothing to show for our efforts.

"Well, tonight was certainly a bust, then." Leo answered with a sigh. "We're under the intersection of 3rd Avenue and Grand, about a block from where we fought. We'll wait for you two to meet us."

"Be right there, bro," Mikey said, and hung up. "Looks like they came up empty-handed, too. This totally sucks." He grumbled, kicking angrily at a puddle on the floor of the sewer tunnel, sending runoff water spraying outward to splatter against the walls. He sighed, and we trudged off to find our companions in dejected silence.

Neither of us spoke for several minutes, upset by the knowledge that the entire battle had turned out a failure. Not only had Big Louie and his men gotten away, but the bodies of the five murdered men were now buried under tons of rubble, and were unlikely to be found any time soon. Even if they were, there was no way now of ever pinning the deaths on anyone, since all the evidence had been destroyed along with the building.

At last, Mikey looked over at me with an expression of doubt and anxiety, as if something was on his mind, but he was afraid to speak. I reached up to touch his shoulder, and gave him a reassuring smile. "Hey, we did our best, right? We didn't know he had the detonator for those charges- Don't blame yourself for letting them get away. We'll find a way to make this right." I said, hoping to cheer him up. A part of me couldn't help realizing the irony of trying to console the eternal joker of our team, the one who was usually cheering up everyone else.

"Huh? Oh, no- it's not that," He said after a moment. "I mean, yeah, it sucks, but that's not what was bothering me. It's done, and there's not much we can do about it now, so why keep dwellin' on it? I was just thinkin' about what you said earlier- y'know, about the way we look." He sighed, and I had the impression that something was eating at him. "You don't think we're ugly, do you? That guy back there did, and it seems like everyone who sees us either screams and runs, faints, or starts throwin' things or shootin' at us. Do we REALLY look that bad?" He stopped in his tracks and turned to me, looking more upset than I'd seen him in some time. "Sometimes I feel like we're monsters or somethin', cause that's all anyone ever sees. ARE we?"

I didn't know what to say at first. His question had taken me completely by surprise, for I'd been certain he was simply angry about the failed attempt to bust the mobsters and hang them out for the police to take in. Instead, he seemed more concerned about my earlier joke about his appearance. "Mikey, you know I was only teasing you in there, don't you? I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Don't let what that guy said get to you. Who cares what a bunch of criminal thugs think, anyway?"

"You didn't answer the question," he replied sullenly. "DO you think we're ugly? Is that why people hate and fear us? I know we're DIFFERENT, but are we THAT scary or hideous?"

I looked him in the eyes for what seemed like an eternity, not knowing what to tell him. It had never even occurred to me before that moment to even think about how he looked- it was just something I'd gotten used to. Not that I felt they were monsters by any means- I knew them well enough by now to know they were anything BUT. Yet he'd caught me off guard, and now I had to seriously consider how I looked at them. And I discovered that I really had no idea how to answer his question. How did one even judge the appearance of a half-human mutant turtle? Certainly not by conventional standards, that much I knew. But ugly? In comparison to what, exactly?

"I don't know, to be honest," I said after a while. "I've never really thought about it before. I mean, what am I supposed to judge by? Human looks? That's like comparing a spider and a frog- how do you say if one is ugly or not? Both can be beautiful in their own way. I've seen some pretty ugly humans, but aside from those two morons that Shredder has working for him, you guys are the only mutants I've ever seen, and I include Splinter in that list, just so you know. I'm not saying any of you would ever make the "Fifty Most Beautiful" list in People, but you're not exactly "elephant man" ugly, either." I reached up and gently took the orange bandana from his eyes, and gazed for a long moment at his naked face. "You know, I've always thought red-ears were rather pretty as turtles go- and I can still see some of that in all of you. The patterns on your shells, for one thing. They really are unique. I guess what I'm saying is that for being mutants, I'd say you're all quite handsome."

"You sure you're not just sayin' that 'cause you know us? It's easy to say that now, but what about when we first met? You were just as scared as everyone who's ever seen us." He looked doubtful, perhaps thinking I was merely trying to spare his feelings.

"What do you expect? Until that night, I didn't even know such a thing was possible! Heck, Mikey, that was shock more than anything. It's not exactly like there are dozens of mutants running around this city openly. Most people would freak out just at the thought that we're not the only intelligent beings on the plaent anymore. It's just- hard to accept, that's all. But if you boys were human, and as beautiful on the outside as you are on the inside, Splinter would have to beat off the girls with his walking stick. And THAT'S the honest truth."

He still didn't seem convinced, so I decided to settle his doubts the only other way I knew how- I leaned in and wrapped my arms around his neck, and kissed his cheek. "Ignore what those idiots back there said. They just don't see how amazing you are." I felt a tremble in his hand as he reached up to hug me back, and I could almost swear he was too stunned to speak. "You're not ugly- you're kind of adorable, in a weird goofball way. Now, come on, pretty boy, let's go find the others before Leo wears a rut in the tunnel by pacing." I grinned as I pulled away, and for just a moment, I felt him hold tighter, as if reluctant to end the close contact. I sighed, wondering when he was ever going to admit how he felt. I was beginning to get frustrated by his silence.


	11. Chapter 11

Remember that warning that things were about to get really nasty? It starts HERE. Things are taking a turn for the worse for our star-crossed couple, and it's only going to get more intense and dangerous from here on out!

Michelangelo's Journal: Pt 4

So, um, after Sensei made Orlene a kunoichi, he decided it was time to start trainin' her with weapons. I kept hopin' she'd pick 'chucks like I did, but she's not especially good with them. Not too shabby with the sais, though. Raph was pretty stoked about that. But she REALLY shines with the gunsen or the kusari-gama. Funny, but I never pegged her for the type to use that one. It's almost as hard to learn as mine, but it's got more range. I only suggested it to Sensei because she did so well with the kama. Imagine my surprise when she took to it like she'd been born with it. I think it was the dual-wielding that was givin' her fits with the 'chucks. But 'chucks are best in pairs, if ya' want my opinion. One's just not good for much.

It didn't take long before she got to try out her new toys, either. I'd say her first test run was a "smash", to use a bad pun. Leo fussed at her for takin' risks against that shotgun dude, but it's nothin' we haven't done before ourselves. No big deal. Not like dealin' with trained killers like that bastard Saki. He's just bad news all around.

Anyway, she spent the night down in the lair with us that night after her first real patrol, and watched a bunch of Bruce Lee movies with us. I let her stay in my room, and she made us breakfast the next morning. Cool, huh? She can cook, likes kung-fu movies, and even laughs at my jokes! Well, most of the time. Yeah, I think I'll keep her….

She started goin' out on patrols with us all the time, and she was gettin' pretty good, too. Gotta' appreciate a girl who's smart, pretty, AND can kick some butt. She's got spunk, that's for sure! Guess that's what first drew me in, really- that fiery spirit. Well, that and those totally tubular curves. Yeah, so I'm a sucker for a hot babe. And why NOT? I got eyes, don't I? Just wish I knew how to tell her how I feel.

Too bad my bros didn't see it that way. I dunno what Raph's problem is- other than, y'know, just bein' Raph- but Leo was ridin' my ass about it every chance he got. What a hypocrite. He's been moonin' over Lotus for years, and he tells ME to "give it up"? At least MY girl never worked for Krang or tried to kill us. But every time I remind him of it, he just gets pissed at me- like it's MY fault he picked the wrong girl to fall for. I think maybe he's jealous.

At least Donnie was on my side- sort of. He didn't get on my case about wantin' to be with a human; mostly he just shook his head with this disappointed look, and didn't say anything. It's almost like he just felt like I was betrayin' the family or somethin'. But it's not like I'd ever abandon my bros! They should know that by now. As much as I love her- wow, did I really just SAY that?- I'm still totally down with keepin' us together and safe. Leo worries that I'm lettin' my feelings get in the way of my first duty to the clan, but he's dead wrong. He doesn't understand. None of them do. I can't HELP how I feel, it just IS.

Raph seemed more angry than anything. Big surprise there. Maybe he's really just afraid I'll up and leave. Maybe he thinks I'll run off and forget about them. Like I could EVER do that. We're family, and besides, where else am I gonna' go? It's not like I can just get my own place and live like a human. Not sure I would really want to, either. Too many headaches.

Not that I wouldn't LIKE to be able to live like everyone else, mind. Sometimes I get jealous of other guys our age. The only things most of them ever have to worry about are findin' a date to a school dance, or gettin' their driver's license, or whether or not they should vote or go to college. If that was all we had to think about, things would be a lot different for us. Instead we gotta' worry about where we're gonna' get our next meal, or if someone will find our home, or if that jerk Saki is gonna' finally wipe us out. Heck, we can't even go out in public without some kind of disguise.

Don't get me wrong- it has its up side, too. Like livin rent-free, which is really a blessing in a city like New York. Or havin' easy access to just about every utility and amenity without the hassles of usin' money. Not supposed to talk about that, but there you are. We pirate EVERYTHING. Sometimes I think the world would be better off without money. We get along fine without it. Most of the time, anyway. The only time we ever need to deal with it is if we go topside to eat pizza at Vinnie's, or visit Mr. Murakami for those awesome pot-stickers he makes. He's this old blind guy who runs a little Japanese restaurant down on Bleeker St., near April's place. He knows what we are, but he doesn't care. I like him.

Anyway, long story short, I got into a couple of fights with my bros, and then Sensei put his foot down- on our heads. Can't believe he actually grounded us. We're almost eighteen, fer cryin' out loud! Who gets grounded at THAT age? Well, I'm sure other kids do- but probably for doin' stuff like sneakin' out to get drunk, wreckin' their parents' car- y'know, REALLY stupid stuff like that. And what do WE get it for? Fightin'. Y'know, the thing he TAUGHT us to do? I don't get it.

To make things even worse, Donnie HAD to go and tell her about the whole "mating season" thing. Like I really needed THAT embarrassment. Might as well have posted a big sign in the living room- "Turtle territorial dominance fights daily through June 1st. Admission 5$." Well, somethin' like that, anyway. Havin' her around almost every day wasn't makin' it easier, either. I don't think I've ever taken so many cold showers in my life! Didn't help, though. Still had the same problem.

Gettin' grounded only made it worse. I couldn't go out to skate the sewers on my board, or even keep myself occupied with games or TV, since Splinter banned us from those for a week. I even got bored with my comics. So I started findin' OTHER ways to entertain myself. Yup, that's right- Dr. Prankenstein came out to play! Raph is usually my target, 'cause he's so easy. Donnie's harder, but really fun when he gets in a huff, 'cause he just yells a lot and doesn't really do much about it. Leo- well, he's a tough one to pull one off on, because he's usually on his guard, even in the lair. Plus, he gets suspicious anytime I'm not actin' like a hyperactive clown. He knows me too well….

We got a little reprieve when April called one day to let us know that Casey had heard word about some kind of major deal goin' down with Big Louie's boys. He's a Mob kingpin who's involved with all kinds of illegal stuff. They were havin' some kind of meeting in an old office complex that was scheduled for demolition the next day. We got to the scene just in time to witness an execution go down. I know that stuff happens all the time in this city- but we don't usually SEE it. It was a little upsetting to watch it happen right in front of us, knowin' that if we'd gotten there sooner, maybe we coulda' stopped it. No one should go out like that. It just ain't right.

So we crashed the goons' little rendezvous, but that turned into a huge bust when Louie decided to set off the charges on the building. We barely got out of there in one piece, and all the evidence went down with the building. Donnie did some digging afterward- on the internet, that is- and found out one of Louie's companies had the contract for the demolition. He thinks that's why they used that place for the execution- it would be easy to get rid of the bodies when his own guys were the ones doin' the demolition.

We got reamed by Sensei for goin' out against his orders, of course, but it was worth it, I guess. At least it gave us a chance to get away from the lair for a little while and get some air. I was goin' kind of stir crazy after only three DAYS of bein' grounded. Can't imagine what it would be like to be stuck at home for WEEKS. But once he got over bein' steamed at us and found out what we'd seen, he decided that keepin' us cooped up was probably a bad idea. We STILL had to work our tails off for the next few days- or we WOULD have, if not for a certain human can-opener…. But that's a whole different can of worms.

I was just glad everything was back to normal again at home- or at least as normal as it ever gets for us. But then the universe decided we were havin' it too easy, and threw a monkey wrench into the works- one by the name of Oruku Saki, aka Shredder. Wouldn't ya' know he had to show his mug again? And right in the middle of one of April's reports, too. It all went to hell from there. Especially after he…. On second thought, better not get into that now. And as much as I hate to admit it, I was actually a little jealous of that creep; he did the ONE thing that I never could. Well, not without a LOT of pain and awkward maneuvering involved. Let's just say we're NOT built from standard-issue parts. Especially in the, uh, "software" department. At least, not in HUMAN terms.

There's this funny misconception that our ordinary cousins are a bit "underdeveloped" in certain respects. NOT true. See, the truth is more like the opposite- there's "wow", and then there's "holy crap, what's THAT?!" Proportionately speaking, we'd be somewhere in the neighborhood of "HELL, no!" Like I said, not exactly human-friendly. And don't even get me started on the OTHER issue. I used to wonder what was up with that- until Donnie explained a few things about "normal" shapes of terrapin anatomy one day. He showed us some stuff in one of his biology books, and- well, it was WAY more than I needed to know. Scary stuff….

It's funny, but I never used to think about things like that; but lately…. I guess none of us ever really figured it would matter. It's not like there are any girls like us around. I think that sort of makes us an endangered species. Once WE'RE gone, that's it. It'd be as if our "kind" never even existed. A dead-end on the evolutionary tree, as Donnie would put it. That's pretty depressing, when ya' think about it. No chance of ever having families of our own, that's for sure. Not that we get a lot of dates down here to begin with. What female in her right mind would ever give US the time of day, much less get involved romantically? Heck, I'm not even sure if that's LEGAL!

It started when she and April were doing a report on Stock-Tronics, Baxter's old robotic engineering company. Even with Fly-guy out of the picture, it was still doin' some pretty high-tech research. Unfortunately, when Shred-head found out about the new exo-suits they were workin' on there, he decided to crash the party; naturally, he brought along his pet hench-morons, as usual. He took April and Orlene hostage to keep the cops at bay- she wasn't about to try fightin' him by herself again, so she stayed put and kept quiet. Good girl. Of course we couldn't let that stand, so we drove like a bat outta Hell to get there, and sprang on him and those mutant ham-heads of his from the back door. But Leo didn't count on him having General Traag and a couple dozen of those stupid robots with him- and THESE were some sort of upgraded model. Chaos ensued.

We got there to see him talkin' to the girls in a real threatening way. He had Orlene all chained up like some helpless damsel in one of those cheesy old westerns. April was tied up too, but they'd only used ropes on her. We found out later that she'd tried to distract them so Orlene could get away after she cut the ropes they'd been usin' on her with one of her shuriken. Too bad Rocksteady caught her and dragged her back to that creep. We coulda' used the help in that fight- and maybe she wouldn't have ended up…. Well, things would've been different, that's all.

The fight didn't last long, but it was pretty brutal with Krang's head Stone Warrior goon in the mix. Shred-head didn't even fight; he just shouted orders and held his weapon on the girls. I'd call him a weasel, but that would be an insult to weasels. To make matters worse, they had already grabbed the exo-suit prototype before we even got there! When the fight turned sour, he carried Orlene off with him into the transport module while we were occupied with Traag and those damn robots. Just before he bugged out, I saw him use a sleeper-jab on her, not that it would have mattered much with her wrapped up like a Christmas present with Rocksteady's manriki-gusari wound around her real tight. He was usin' her as a human shield- like the coward he is- but I spotted him slitherin' off with his hench-dweebs, and broke off from the fight to follow that snake. I managed to slip in ahead of them and hide in the back. It's a good thing I did, too. Not sure what pissed Leo off worse, the fact that we were too late to stop him, or that our adopted sis got herself captured on top of everything. Leo takes things kind of personal sometimes, though. I get that he's got a lot on his shoulders- y'know, bein' leader and all- but sometimes he's just WAY too uptight.

I don't know what happened after I quit the battle to go after that creep, but as soon as I got in the module, I turned off my T-com, just in case. I didn't want it goin' off and blowin' my position once my bros realized I was gone. Knowin' Leo, it wouldn't have taken long. Maybe I should've left it on so they could track me, but I just didn't like the odds- it was too much of a risk to wait for them. Anyway, the whole idea was to get in and spring Orlene without gettin' caught. That was the important thing; she NEEDED me. Besides, I knew my bros could handle Traag and the stupid robots.

I guess the part about not gettin' caught is where I messed up. I heard the engine start up and waited while the vehicle burrowed its way down under the city to wherever the Technodrome was parked. Near as we could tell, it was somewhere under the harbor. When it finally got there, I waited while Tweedle-dumb and Tweedle-dumber grabbed Orlene and the exo-suit and followed Tin-face out of the hanger. I snuck out and followed them to see where they'd take her, and it wasn't long before they ended up on the detention level. I had to hang back a bit while they locked her up; then I waited until the brute squad left and I called to get her attention.

She was surprised to see me, that much was pretty obvious- and she seemed kind of scared, or maybe she was just nervous about me risking gettin' caught to help her. Can't say I blame her- I was nervous, too. I've been in the Technodrome enough times to know that place is WAY dangerous. It's full of all kinds of traps and nasty surprises, not to mention those robot ninjas and Krang's Stone Warriors. He's also got a few mutants running around the place, too. See, Rocksteady and Bebop ain't the ONLY mutants he's got working for him- there's also another pair he calls Tokka and Rahzar, and another one named Slash. Tokka's a real-life "big, bad wolf", and Rahzar and Slash are, um, well, they're turtles. But not like us- Rahzar's a snapper, and Slash is, I dunno, a diamondback, maybe? Slash was a pet of Rocksteady and Bebop that they decided to mutate so they'd have their own mutant slave to order around, if that tells ya' anything. They're all really big and tough, with tempers worse than Raph on a bad day. Only GOOD thing is they've all got the mental capacity of a four-year-old. Lucky us- we get all the brains, and they get all the brawn.

It didn't take long to figure out the keypad on the door lock was probably hooked to some kind of alarm, and if I got the code wrong, it'd go off. So I told her to sit tight while I went to the main computer room to override the controls. At least, that was the plan. I'm not real good at the hacking stuff like Donnie is, but I can figure out the basics well enough. Well, sometimes. One of these days, I gotta' get him to teach ME some of his tech tricks, too. Couldn't hurt, anyway.

It took a little while to get there without bein' seen, 'cause it's on one of the upper levels. I guess I got lucky, 'cause I didn't run into any Foot soldiers. Guess they were all on their robot lunch break or somethin'. Do robots take breaks? Meh, whatever. I had to hunt for the right file in the main computer, but I finally managed to find the security controls for the detention cells and shut 'em down. I boot-scooted it back, but when I got back to where she was, HE was there- and he looked like he had somethin' in mind that WASN'T nice. He had her shirt ripped in front, and when he saw me, he threatened to slice her open if I didn't give myself up. He'd have done it, too. I finally tossed my 'chucks, 'cause I didn't have much choice, but it really chapped my hide that there wasn't anything I could do without riskin' her gettin' hurt.

That's when Rocksteady and Bebop showed up, and it all went downhill. It was bad enough when it was just him, but I knew I couldn't take on all three by myself. Not with her in harm's way. If it was just me, I wouldn't have been too worried, 'cause we've been trained all our lives how to fight our way out of a bad situation, but this time I was the one who had to protect my teammate. We all know how to take care of ourselves, and we all know that we might have to make sacrifices to do what we have to. That's just somethin' we've learned to live with. But I had someone else to think about now, and that's never happened before. I'm used to bein' the one everybody else worries about, the one my bros always want to keep safe; now I know what it's like to want to protect someone else, too. It really hit me then- this was what Raph always feels when one of us is in trouble, or what Leo deals with when he has to put one of us in the line of fire. It sucks.

Then those two grabbed me and shoved me down, with Rocksteady's boot in my back, and my arms pulled back so far it felt like they were gettin' ripped off. And then HE started- doin' what he did. Just thinkin' about it makes me sick. And I couldn't do a damn thing about it. Those two jerks started kickin' and stompin' me while I was down; Rocksteady stomped on my leg, and I heard a crack and felt a pain so sharp I didn't need Don to tell me it was broken. They kept kickin' me in the bridge of my shell- that's the part that connects the plastron to the carapace- 'til my ribs cracked. And they were just laughin' and watchin' while that human slime-ball held her down and…. And all I could do was watch.

I was scared; I admit it. Not for me- I've been through the "Mikey got himself captured again" thing enough times that it just doesn't seem as big a deal anymore. Heck, it's almost a running joke in the family by now. The last time was on my birthday, of all things. He tried to do me in like Dorothy did to the Witch of the West- by usin' some kind of acid goo to melt me like a popsicle on a hot day. Real classy guy, that Saki.

But this was different. What he did to Orlene- that went WAAAY beyond his usual brand of evil. He used her to try to hurt US, not because he had any real interest in her. She was just a tool to him. Somethin' to use and toss away when he was done. Made me more angry than I ever thought I could be. For the first time in my life, I actually wanted to kill him. I mean REALLY kill him. I wanted to rip him to pieces with his own damned gauntlet, or bash his head in with my 'chucks. Maybe both. I never hated anyone as much as I hated him at that moment. Seein' what he did to her was worse than when he tried to kill our father. That had stabbed at my heart, but THIS- it cut straight through my soul. I thought I finally understood what Raph feels when he goes into one of his rages.

Before he left, that tin-plated asshole had his goons strip-search me- which is kinda' pointless, if ya' think about it. Lucky for me they're not too bright, 'cause they forgot that turtle shells have plenty of nooks and crannies to hide stuff. We always keep a little somethin' tucked away for emergencies- like, say, a kunai. That's how I was able to get us out. Even then, we had to make a couple of detours through the armory, the mutagenics lab, and the Foot robot factory. Well, the lab wasn't totally a need-to thing, but I just couldn't stomach what was in there, and had to do SOMETHIN' about it. I just can't stand seein' ANYTHING suffer like that….

Anyway, by the time we finally got away, we'd done some pretty major damage- enough to make sure Shred-head and Krang would be REALLY ticked at us. Once we made it home, I took Don aside and told him what was up. He was pretty pissed, that's for sure, but he agreed that it would be a good idea to make sure nothin' was wrong with Orlene. I told the others about the rescue, but I left out the part about what that creep did at first, mostly because I didn't want to drag her through that. But, of course, Leo had to go stickin' his nosy beak into things as usual, and we almost had another blow-up over it. See, that's EXACTLY why I didn't want him and Raph gettin' involved. Those two always turn everything into a huge "thing". Couple of drama queens, if ya' ask me. And it made it harder on her, which was exactly what I DIDN'T want!

So, how do ya' deal with somethin' really bad that's happened, when you were right there, helpless to do anything about it? I still have nightmares sometimes- I hear her yellin', fightin' that monster while he's- damn it, I can't even think about it. And I'm down on my knees, those two stupid thugs of his makin' crude jokes while they beat the crap outta' me. Then I wake up, shakin' and cryin', 'cause I feel like it was my fault. She doesn't talk about it, but I know it still hurts- I see it sometimes when we're all sparring and she gets into a hold she can't get out of, and she starts to panic. Like maybe it reminds her of- THAT.

The guys don't say anything, but I think they're all worried. Especially Leo. But he knows what it's like to feel responsible when someone else gets hurt on his watch. He knows what it's like to let someone down when it really matters. Maybe that's why he never yelled at me for wantin' to go after that bastard on my own. He'd have felt the same way. I think maybe they all would have. But that's what makes it so hard- knowin' that I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't stop him. And it hurts every time she looks at me. I tried, I really did; but it just- wasn't enough….


	12. Chapter 12

And now for... the REST of the story. Gee, I feel like Walter Cronkite here. JK. Well, since we all know Mikey is a man- er, turtle- of few words, now it's time to see what REALLY happened. And rest assured, he barely scratched the tip of the iceberg! Also, I've planted some little shout-outs in this chapter- the first is the mention of Baxter's company from the 2K3 cartoon, and the second is Dr. Allen. (Who is employed by Baxter's company in the new IDW comic series, AND who just HAPPENS to be *spoiler alert!* the Fugitoid!) He's not a robot in this version, just a scientist, but I thought it would be fun to include a nod to Honeycutt/Fugitoid here! Also included: a nod to the movies, a shout-out to a particularly funny OT episode- props to anyone who catches them! Also, there are a couple of fun references to other movies in this ish- see if you can catch what movies they're from! A hint, one is easy, but the others might be hard to figure out unless you're fan of those particular franchises. PM me or post in comments if you think you know them!

Anyway, on to something- really graphic. Well, not TOO much, but certainly bad enough- we're about to get into some SERIOUS $h*t. The fight in Baxter's lab, more evil nastiness from our (ahem) favorite villain, and- some really disturbing accusations. Looks like our gal's gotten herself into it deep this time! And trust me, folks, it only gets darker from here on out. And don't worry about the Japanese dialog- it is mostly stuff that REALLY doesn't deserve translation, LOL! That's right, this boy can curse in TWO languages! I'm about to set these two loose in the Technodrome for some good, (ahem) messy fun! And while we all know that our leading "man" is a bit of a cut-up, but he can also be quite scary when he gets serious. For anyone who's never seen it, I recommend viewing the 2K3 episode "Same As It Never Was" for reference. I borrowed a bit of that series' future Mikey for this chapter, as I think it fits him here. We've got some very emotional issues to work through for this pair. There are also some new revelations, a bit of Shredder's more sinister side, more brutality and buffoonery from our favorite villainous mutant duo, and Mikey in full-on protective BF mode. And never mind that he hasn't even gotten up the guts to ask her yet...

Warning: More violence, language, and suggestive content. Have fun! And now, back to our regularly scheduled tale!

Into the Fire

We met up with the others quickly, and headed back to the lair in a subdued mood. The utter disaster of the battle had left us all feeling a bit disgusted by the lack of success. It only got worse when we returned to the lair to find a very irate old rat sitting up in his worn old recliner in the living room. I was hardly surprised by the chastisement the boys received, though it was brutal, to be sure. I'd only rarely seen Splinter that angry; what DID surprise me was that I was included in his furious lecture. Apparently, he had expected me to help Leo keep discipline in the family, rather than encouraging their disobedience by going off with them. I had to admit he had a point, though I felt he was being a bit harsh. In the end, Leo and Raph bore the brunt of the blame, since it was Raphael who had first chosen to disobey his orders, and Leonardo had gone along with it rather than standing firm in doing as they were told. Still, I could see they were both chafing at the restrictions, and why not? They were nearly grown now, and hardly needed protecting anymore.

It was late when I finally fell into my own bed that night; and yet, when I closed my eyes, I kept going back to what Mikey had asked me. While it was certainly true that I hardly even consciously thought of their differences anymore, there was still that tiny part of me that felt a little unnerved by what they were. It was the same inner voice that had insisted that I had gone stark raving mad or was dreaming when we'd first met, the voice that balked at acknowledging the possibility that such beings could even exist. Now that voice refused to believe that anything could ever come of such a relationship. I tried to tell myself that it was silly, but it was what it was. As much as I'd come to love and accept them all as family and close friends, I still couldn't completely wrap my head around the fact that they were only half human. It sucked, but there it was.

I spent a sleepless night weighing that against everything that I had come to admire and respect about my new family, and especially against my knowledge of Mikey's feelings. By morning, I had finally come to the conclusion that, all differences aside, I DID love them all like family. And there was nothing that would ever change that. For better or worse, they were part of my life now, and I felt closer to them than I had to anyone in a long time. That was all that mattered.

There was still the matter of Michelangelo, however, and on that, I wasn't so certain where I stood. COULD it work? Did I even feel that way about him? Though I had grown close to all four, something about him kept drawing me in, like a moth to a flame. I wasn't sure if it was his light-hearted, easy-going nature, his warm, generous spirit, his often quirky sense of humor, or the rare moments when he was serious and intense. Maybe it was all of those things. I was certain he hid a deeply passionate heart behind the jokes and sometimes annoying theatrics. I wondered what it would be like to share that, to be allowed into the part of himself he never let anyone else see. I'd already caught glimpses of his inner self, and it was like having a butterfly land in your hand- rare and beautiful, and special when it happened.

The next morning, I rose feeling exhausted from the previous night's events and the lack of sleep. If I'd known what was to come that day, I'd have stayed in bed. But a girl's gotta' eat, and I had a job to do. So after the usual round of showering, feeding Trouble, and my daily practice with the boys, I was off to channel Six to help April with a report she was doing at Stock-Tronics, a high-tech research lab that had once been run by one Baxter Stockman- the man Mikey had informed me had been transformed into a mutant fly. There was a time when I would have scoffed at the very idea of such a thing, but that time was long gone.

I had been mostly silent on the way to the facility, and April must have noticed, for she turned to me as we got out of the sleek blue Channel Six news van to get the equipment ready. "You've been pretty quiet all morning, Orlene. Something on your mind?" She asked, giving me a warm smile as she carried the camera stand into the lab. I turned at her question, pausing with the heavy video camera at my side, and sighed.

"Maybe. Is it THAT obvious?" I said, frowning. Trust April to play the mother hen and ferret out whatever was bothering someone. She was always so good at that. Sometimes a bit TOO good, in fact.

"This doesn't have anything to do with what you told Irma and me, does it?" Damn. Not only did she know something was eating at me, but she seemed to know exactly what it was, too! I started to wonder if she might be a little psychic. "Have you talked to him about it?"

I grimaced, and shook my head. I decided that maybe it had been a mistake to tell her about the situation with Mikey. "Not yet- I haven't really had a chance to. I've been trying to follow Splinter's advice and keep my distance for a while, considering the time of year- and trust me, that's NOT as easy as it sounds during our daily practice! The only one I've really spent much time with down there is Don, and that's only because he seems less inclined toward those wild mood swings than the rest of them. Not quite sure why that is." I mused, shrugging.

"You'll have to talk to him sooner or later," she replied, giving me an odd look. "How do you feel about him? If you're not interested, just say so- don't string him along. He deserves to know the truth, even if it hurts."

"What? It's not LIKE that, April! I'd never do that, I respect him too much to hurt him that way. Of course he deserves the truth; but that's the problem. I don't KNOW how I feel." We were in Stock-Tronics' main testing area now. April set up the stand while I unwound the cords.

She studied me for a moment before answering. "Then ask yourself something- how does he make you feel when you're around him?"

That made me pause for a moment. I'd never thought of it in those terms before, but suddenly everything seemed to fall into place. "I feel- comfortable. Happy. It feels like…." I stopped, not quite knowing how to say what I felt around him.

"Like coming home?" April asked, raising one brow. Her green eyes sparkled knowingly. I hesitated, and then nodded slowly.

"Y- yes. That's it." I said softly.

"Then that's your answer," April replied, smiling again. "See, that wasn't so hard!" She teased, laughing lightly. I hate when she's right- but I guess that's why she's such a good reporter. She always seems to have good instincts. She glanced over thoughtfully, and grinned. "You know, you two WOULD make a cute couple! And just wait 'til I tell Irma! She'll want to know all the details!" She chuckled, really getting into it now. I finished setting up the equipment, rolling my eyes in annoyance. And it starts….

"Don't you DARE tell her about any of this! She'd start gushing about how adorable it is, and ask a million questions like when we're getting married or if she can be a bridesmaid, and will there be any eligible men at the wedding! I've half a mind to set her up with Donatello, just to see how she'd react!"

April just laughed. "That might almost be worth it!" I made a face at her, and she shook her head with a mischievous smile; then she suddenly turned serious, and made a show of clearing her throat with a jerk of her head to our left. A tall, skinny, and scruffy-bearded man in glasses and a lab coat was approaching us. It looked like it was time to get down to work.

We were supposed to be interviewing the head of a new project, a scientist named Dr. Chet Allen. He had developed a sophisticated exo-suit that would not only allow physically handicapped people to function normally, but could also be used to aid in performing difficult or dangerous jobs like building construction, pipe-laying, stone-cutting, or even working underwater. I was fascinated by the prospects it opened up, and I had a feeling that when Donnie saw the interview, he would be, as well. I listened intently, eager to learn about this new technology- the better to share my thoughts on the invention with Donnie later- while Dr. Allen demonstrated the abilities of the suit's prototype.

We were in the middle of the interview when I felt the first tremors. At first, I thought it was simply the camera shaking, but they quickly escalated until the entire ground under our feet began to shudder. I looked across to April, whose eyes had gone wide as saucers. Dr. Allen was looking down at the ground in a seeming panic, his shaggy blonde hair falling over his eyes, and several of the assistants present in the lab began shouting frantically.

"Uh-oh! I've got a BAD feeling about this!" April said anxiously. I couldn't have agreed more.

"You got THAT right!" I replied, dread beginning to turn my blood ice-cold.

"W- What's g-going on?!" The Dr. yelled, looking confused. "I've never heard of an earthquake in New York before!"

"This isn't an earthquake!" April yelled back worriedly, and as if to prove her point, the ground between us suddenly burst up as if a blister had popped. A huge hole opened up in the middle of the lab's floor, and an enormous drill-bit emerged, followed by the large cylindrical vehicle it was attached to. April and Dr. Allen fell backward, landing on one side of the underground transport, while I ended up on the opposite side on my rear. I groaned, realizing that my day had just turned into a nightmare.

I was on the far side of the module when the hatch in its side opened up. I crawled slowly to the end and peeked around, only to see Shredder and his two hench-mutants emerge, along with ten of those robot-ninjas that seemed to follow him everywhere. I wondered again just how many of those things he had. He spotted April and Dr. Allen, and ordered his goons to grab them both, while he sent the robots to round up everyone else. A few lab assistants managed to make it out the doors before the robots caught the rest, for which I was thankful, but that still left at least a dozen people in harm's way, not counting April and Dr. Allen.

I was just beginning to slip away to sneak out a back door when I heard a second tremor starting up. Great. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, Murphy's Law kicked in. In seconds, another of the modules surfaced about a dozen feet from the first, and when it opened, I was utterly shocked to see not only another dozen of the robots, but a huge creature that looked like he could have posed as Hulk Hogan's body double, except that he appeared to be made of stone. He- I assumed it was a he, as I could see no discernable parts- carried one of those nasty energy rifles that Shredder seemed so enamored with, and the creature's bearing and stiff, precise movements practically screamed military of some kind. Or maybe it was just because he was- literally- built like a brick shithouse. Hard to tell.

Then the stone-faced alien- and I knew without a doubt that he was from a galaxy far, far away- saw me, and yelled out for me to halt. In perfect English, even. An alien who spoke my own language? Go figure. Maybe he had some sort of translator device. I chose to ignore him and ran for the door, only to have a warning shot fired almost up my nose as I glanced back. Yikes! This guy meant business!

"Halt, human, in the name of Lord Krang! You are now my prisoner!" I stopped cold, realizing I would never get to the door without being cut down. The alien rock-man thudded heavily toward me, and I glared angrily when he grabbed my arm in a grip like- well, like stone- and yanked me toward the other underground transporter. I considered kicking him in the nuts, but two things stopped me; first, I didn't know where they might be, and second, they were likely made of stone, just like the rest of him.

"Shredder, I found this human trying to sneak away," he said in a deep, booming tone. Sheesh, even his voice was gravely. I yelped in pain as he shoved me down to the ground at the feet of his superior.

"Excellent, General Traag. Rocksteady- tie her up with Miss O'Neil. I want to keep these two close in case those accursed reptiles show up. They may prove useful." I swallowed. That did not sound good.

"Sure thing, Boss!" The rhino-mutant said gleefully. I rolled my eyes, while he reached into the transporter and pulled out a length of rope. He tied me up and plopped me down on the floor beside April, while Shredder turned to give his orders to the enormous stone alien.

"Traag, take two Foot soldiers and go retrieve the exo-suit. The rest will guard the hostages. And hurry! I want to be back in the Technodrome by lunchtime!"

"I take orders from Lord Krang, not from YOU, human!" The rock-man growled, half-raising his blaster. I sensed hostility between the pair, and began to plan how to take advantage of it.

Shredder seemed to explode with rage at the stone alien's defiance. "KRANG is not HERE, Traag- you WILL obey my orders, or I will have you melted into slag! I am in command of this mission, do NOT forget that! Now go, and don't forget the schematics- the suit is useless to me without them!"

"As you wish, Saki. But Krang will hear about this, I PROMISE you!" The alien said reluctantly, turning to do his bidding. He stomped off angrily, with two of the robots following behind him.

"N- no! The exo-suit is m-my life's work! You c-can't DO this!" The bespectacled scientist protested, grabbing for Shredder's cape. "W-what are you going to d-do with it?!"

"SILENCE, fool! I intend to use it to raise my Technodrome up from under the harbor and conquer this city with my robot army. And NOTHING will stop me! Now get off me, you pathetic worm!" He shoved the man back, slamming him into the side of the transport module with a heavy thud.

Dr. Allen shook his head, dazed, but determined to protect his creation. He got back up, and made a grab for his cape again. "I w-won't let you g-get away with this!" He said, yanking futilely at the powerful armored ninja. I used his outburst as a distraction, to wriggle my left hand until I was able to reach into the pouch on my belt with my shuriken in it, and pulled one out. I began to saw at the rope binding me, being careful not to let Shredder see what I was doing.

Saki lost all patience then, and kicked him backward to the floor. "I've no time for this! NO ONE touches me and lives, sniveling fool!" And with that, he swiveled his own energy rifle to point at Dr. Allen, and opened fire at point-blank range. The man fell back, a look of surprise and comprehension, before he twitched once and went still. I heard April's horrified gasp, as the room fell silent. I paused momentarily in cutting at the rope, aghast at what our enemy had just done.

We both stared in horror at the smoking hole in Dr. Allen's chest. I wanted to be sick. Why had Saki killed him? The man was certainly no threat to him, and there seemed little point in murdering one of his hostages. Unless he had done it purely for pleasure, or to show the rest of us that he meant business. Either way, I was determined that he would pay for this, along with all his other crimes. I set tot work again, cutting harder at the ropes, desperate to get away and bring help in the form of four hard-shelled fighting machines.

"Let this be a lesson to ALL of you! Defy me, and suffer the consequences!" Saki exclaimed, glaring out at the other hostages in the room. "Does anyone ELSE have any objections?" He asked. No one spoke.

I felt the ropes give, and while his attention was elsewhere, I nudged April and mouthed a sign to keep quiet while I slowly inched away on the floor. As soon as I felt I'd had moved far enough, I ducked around the end of the transporter, and made a break for it. At that moment, April drew Shredder's attention to her, speaking out at last.

"You monster! I hope the turtles DO show up! Dr. Allen was a harmless scientist! Why would you do that to him?!" She shouted, and scooted closer to kick at the mutant warthog. I hoped she could keep them occupied long enough for me to get out. But it wasn't to be. The half-rhino happened to look my way, and suddenly shouted out a warning.

"Hey, Boss! That goil's getting' away!" He said, pointing.

Saki wasted no time. "Then go GET HER!" He snapped, and the rhino lowered his head and charged after me like a runaway train. I suddenly remembered the old joke about stopping a charging rhino by taking away his credit card, and shook my head. I REALLY need to stop listening to Mikey's jokes. It's starting to get to me. I dashed for what I thought was a side exit, but when I yanked open the door, I discovered only a supply closet. Damn. And the mutant was rushing at me with a weighted chain out, swinging it like a bola over his head. I tried to dodge aside, but his aim was better than his English, apparently, and I felt the chain wrap around me before I'd gotten far. He slid to a stop, and reached down to pick me up where I'd fallen, holding me up off the floor easily with one hand.

"Gotcha', blondie!" He growled, and carried me back over to his superior, dumping me back down on the floor. I'd dropped the shuriken when he'd tagged me with his manriki-gusari, or whip-chain, not that it mattered now. There was no way I was getting out of those chains without a miracle. Shredder must have grown annoyed at my attempt to escape, for he stalked over to loom above us menacingly.

He approached slowly, stopping only a few feet away as he regarded us both with eyes devoid of compassion. By now, the big alien with the rock-hard physique had returned with the other two robots- and Stock-Tronics' new exo-suit. Shredder watched as they carried it into his transporter, a look of triumph in his cold, dark eyes. He turned to threaten us, but I knew he was really just gloating. "You have interfered in my plans once too often, Miss O'Neil," he said to April, his tone dangerously cold. "I SHOULD have rid myself of your troublesome presence years ago, but you DO make such a good lure to trap those bothersome freaks you call friends. They are so predictable, always coming to your rescue- one would think they would have grown tired of doing so by now. Pathetic fools."

I heard the purple-Mohawked mutant warthog holding her snort in agreement. April looked as if she was about to make a retort, but I nudged her with one foot and shook my head adamantly. She clamped her mouth shut. Shredder saw the exchange, and I could almost feel the cold sneer hidden behind the face-plate of his helmet. He laughed, a hollow, icy sound that chilled my blood. Then he turned his attention on me.

"THIS one again? I've seen you before- during that battle at the planetarium, and two other times before that. WHO ARE YOU?!" He roared, drawing a tanto from the obi tied around his waist. I stood my ground, hardly even flinching when he slashed out to stop just inches from my throat. He paused as if surprised, perhaps having expected me to scream and cringe in fear. But Splinter had taught me better than that- or I liked to think so, anyway.

At that moment, I heard a shout from behind us, as four green blurs appeared, leaping onto the scene with a battle-cry of "Go, green machine!" I turned to see them rushing toward us as they landed, weapons drawn and ready. I breathed a sigh of relief, glad that they had arrived. I couldn't help noticing that Mikey's eyes met mine for an instant before he focused on the threat before him, as the four brothers all moved in a wide arc to try to surround their foe.

Shredder snarled out a swift command, and the large rock-like alien saluted him grudgingly, as he led the robot-ninjas in a counter-attack. They met in a clash of steel and blaster-fire, while their leader simply remained standing menacingly before April and me, ignoring the battle completely, it seemed. He glared at me as if the interruption had somehow been my fault, and held his blade up in an unmistakable threat, just barely touching my neck. "You will ANSWER! What is your connection to those freaks?!" He snarled, rage flaring up in those dark, inhuman eyes. "Bebop, Rocksteady- search them both! No doubt Miss O'Neil has a communicator from those shell-backs in one of her pockets, and it would not surprise me if the girl has one, as well!" I wondered why he was concerned with that now, when they were already there, but perhaps he simply wanted to make certain they couldn't track us later.

"Heh, WITH pleasure, boss!" The warthog mutant snorted; he began frisking April, and I didn't miss the look of outrage on her face when his hands seemed to stray where they shouldn't. I yelped when the rhino did the same to me, and glared back at him. I had the distinct feeling he had done it on purpose.

"Hey! WATCH it, pork-breath! Do that again, and you'll regret it!" April protested loudly. He merely growled a warning, but April didn't back down. "Just wait until our friends get hold of you, ya' big jerk!" Then he found her shell-cell, and she gasped when he simply grinned at her viciously and crushed it in his huge fist.

"STILL no answer? Perhaps I should just finish you now to leave a message for those mutant pests. After all, I only need ONE hostage!" He said, laughing menacingly. I swallowed, but held still, unwilling to show any weakness before this lunatic.

Meanwhile, Donatello dodged between two robots, hoping to trick them into firing on each other, but these apparently had been programmed to anticipate the tactic, and instead spun to fire on Mikey and Raph. Donnie was surprised for a moment, but used their new targets as distraction to slam his bo into one of them from behind, knocking it onto the floor where he brought the end of the staff down to crush its neck. He moved on the second, but it had already turned back to face him, swinging its weapon to point straight at his head. He ducked swiftly, then used his bo to vault over it to attack from its right flank. While I watched him battle the robot, I felt a large, rough hand reach for the kusari-gama wrapped around my waist like a belt beneath my shirt, the blade tucked neatly into its handle like a switch-blade, ready to pop out with the flick of a wrist.

"Hey, boss- look what I found!" The rhino-man said proudly, brandishing my kusari-gama before his boss as if it were some great accomplishment. Then again, for him, it probably WAS. He and the other mutant took up flanking positions behind April and me, their own blasters ready in case they should need to defend their leader. Shredder looked from my weapon to me and back again, and suddenly all the fury seemed to slide away as if it had never been.

"So, the rat has taken you as a student? Most- interesting. This is new; why has he chosen you, I wonder?" He seemed thoughtful, moving slowly around me as if inspecting a prize race-horse, his gaze seeking some clue to why his hated enemy would wish to train a mere slip of a girl. He paused when he was directly behind me, and I sensed rather than felt his hand flash out to pluck the pair of gunsen from my back pocket. He moved back around in front of me, glaring at me darkly as he flipped them open. "What is THIS?!" He demanded, holding them up just under my nose.

Shredder seemed calm and cool, as if he didn't even care that his enemies were attacking. And why not? He already had what he wanted. The fight raged on around us; I heard Mikey slam his 'chucks into the head of another robot, felling it. He tucked them into his belt for a moment, and ripped the robot's head off to finish it off, before drop-kicking it across the room to strike the back of Bebop's head. The mutant thug whirled on him with a low, angry growl and fired off several blasts at him. Mikey leapt out of the way with a yelp and returned to the main fight.

I held my head up and met Saki's gaze without hesitation, pride pushing all fear aside for the moment. "I am kunoichi of the Foot clan- the teachings of the TRUE Foot, not your twisted mockery of it!" I spat, glowering back at him. "I am heir to the secrets of its rightful Master, and adopted daughter to the one TRUE Sensei of the clan!" I remembered what Splinter had said of the dark shame Saki had brought upon the once-honorable clan, and felt a small measure of revenge in reminding him of his dishonor. As I'd expected, he was not at all pleased with the news.

"Kunoichi? Impossible! There have been none worthy in over a hundred years- why would he DARE give YOU such an honor? That rodent has gone even softer in his old age than I thought! He must be desperate indeed to pass such secrets on to an outsider. And to adopt one such into the clan- it is unthinkable! Has he lost his mind?!" He paced as he ranted, snarling in self-righteous anger. Apparently, his sense of propriety had been offended by the mere thought that Splinter- who was not even human, and never HAD been- not only lay claim to the title of rightful Master of the Foot, but had the temerity to take a bugaisha- an outsider- into the clan as both daughter and kunoichi.

At last he paused in his tirade, whirling to face me again. "Or- perhaps there is something more here…. Have the freaks grown fond of you? Do you share their home? Perhaps even- their beds?" He said, and I wanted to wipe the smug smirk I knew he wore right off his face. It wasn't the first time someone had suggested that, and my stomach roiled at the insinuation he was making. I hadn't yet come to terms with the full implications of my growing fondness for Mikey, especially since I already knew that particular aspect of any future relationship was impossible. That this MONSTER would dare make such assumptions, and even suggest such a debauched relationship between the boys and myself, was utterly vile.

"Shut up, you sick bastard." I spat, only to feel a jerk on the chain binding me. The mutant Rocksteady snorted, and shook his head in derision. Another robot fell, skewered by Raph's sais and thrown over his shoulder into a second one. I wanted nothing more than to join in the fight; even though they had taken out several of the robots, the guys were still outnumbered, and it didn't help that I saw Donnie flinch when the huge rock-man zinged him with a shot from his blaster.

"Dat's just disgustin'," Rocksteady said, curling his thick lips in a look of distaste. "Who'd wanna' boink a toitle? It just ain't natural!" His half-warthog partner made a disgusted face, and even April looked sickened by the thought, though she knew well enough that it wasn't true.

"Says the guy who looks like a rhinoceros. When's the last time YOU got any?!" I shot back defiantly. April chuckled in agreement, but said nothing, as Leo sliced another robot in half while Donnie was busy holding off the huge stone-skinned warrior commanding them. I could tell that the fight was wearing them down, however. Already Raph had a shuriken sticking out of his shell, and another had sliced his left arm.

Shredder laughed as his mutant henchman tightened the chain of his manriki-gusari wrapped around me. I glared back at him furiously, and tried to wriggle loose, but it was no good. Rocksteady's grip on the chain pulled it tight enough to leave bruises. I tried to kick him in the shins, but that could do little damage to a rhino in combat boots. I made a mental note that he would pay for his comments, though. Oh, yes. I would personally see to it that he would be singing soprano for life when I got through with him.

"Shut up, ya' toitle-lovin' bimbo!" He growled, jerking painfully on the chain again. I gritted my teeth in anger and frustration, wanting nothing more than to rip his nuts off. I heard a loud metallic clang to the left, as one of the robots went flying into a wall to smash into pieces of junk. I did a mental count, and realized that there were still more than a dozen left. Shredder and the mutants ignored it.

"Go to Hell," I growled back, struggling again. The mutant thug cuffed me on the back of my head, but apparently he had forgotten my legs were still free. I kicked back, connecting nicely with his most prized possessions, and he howled in pain. I guess rhinos have at least ONE soft spot…. April stifled another giggle. I felt a little better, but I still owed that smelly creep a few more.

Then Saki drew close, his dark, menacing eyes all that was visible of his face beneath the gleaming helmet he seemed so fond of. He held his clawed gauntlet under my chin in a silent threat, as he studied me with an almost cool detachment. "Haha, perhaps I was closer to the truth than I realized. Your feelings betray you, little kunoichi. Which one is, it, I wonder? Or is it the old rodent himself? Perhaps the sentimental fool seeks companionship in his twilight years?" He laughed softly, and I wanted to punch the arrogant jackass in his face for even SUGGESTING that kind of thing.

"SCREW you, creep. Splinter adopted me into the clan because I EARNED it, you jerk! They may be mutants, but any ONE of them is a better man than you'll EVER be!" I snarled; I tried to kick him, but he simply blocked it, before responding with one of his own to my gut. I doubled over breathlessly, mentally listing all the ways I intended to rip him apart- as soon as I could get free. He grabbed me by the hair, and jerked my head up to meet his eyes.

"Such a pretty, spirited young thing. I think I'll keep you around for a while- I will ENJOY breaking that spirit! And I will enjoy seeing how your friends will suffer when I return your broken corpse to them even more! I will teach you the TRUE meaning of pain, that I promise you, little girl!" He laughed again, and for the first time since I'd begun my training, I felt real fear. The last thing I saw was his hand flashing out with lightning speed at my neck, where he struck a pressure point on the left side of my throat. I barely had time to feel it before I felt faint, and my eyes rolled back as I fell unconscious.

I came to in a cold metal room, without windows or furnishings of any kind. There was just a metal door, a narrow ledge jutting from the wall that might serve as a bed of sorts, and a small vent up near the ceiling. I wasn't bound, but I was missing my kusari-gama, my shuriken, and everything else that could possibly help me escape or fight. I was alone, and stripped of all my defenses. The only good news was a small square window in the door, but all it showed me was a bare metal corridor that seemed to curve in both directions. Unfortunately, when I tried to use my training to break through it, all I got was a bruised hand.

I still didn't know where I was, or what that black-hearted fiend had in mind for me. His last words to me had been ominous, though, and something deep in my soul whispered that he had meant every word. There was something twisted in his mind, something dark and utterly cold. Evil. I'd seen a hint of it the first time I'd seen him two years before, and again during the first battle I'd witnessed between him and my new-found family.

I sat down with a sigh, feeling lost, alone, and a little afraid. The hopelessness of my situation was just beginning to sink in, when I heard a familiar voice outside the cell door calling to me through the small window. I leapt up in an instant, and flew to the door. Impossible as it seemed, Michelangelo had somehow come to my rescue!

"Orlene? You okay in there?" He asked, peeking in. I'd never been so happy to see that particular pair of honey-gold eyes as I was at that moment. I sighed heavily in relief, thanking heaven silently for his arrival.

"Yeah, I'm fine for now. But how did you get in here? What are you even DOING here?! If Shredder comes back and finds YOU here, he'll kill us BOTH!" I started to panic as I realized how much danger we were both in. I could only assume we were somewhere inside the enormous tank-fortress the turtles had described to me, but where that might be, and how we were going to get out with our skins intact, was up for grabs.

"Shh! Chill out, okay? I'm saving' your butt, what'd ya' THINK I was doin'? I snuck into the transporter just before it took off. Don't worry, no one knows I'm here." He shot nervous glances down both ends of the corridor, one hand anxiously adjusting its grip on those familiar nunchaku that he never seemed to be without. I'd heard the others joke that he had even given them names, but I wasn't one to criticize. It was clear he was apprehensive about being in enemy territory. I couldn't blame him for that.

"Okay, just hurry up and get me out of here before he comes back! I've got a really bad feeling, and I DON'T want to find out what he has in store for me!" Just thinking of what that monster had said earlier gave me chills. Maybe it was the look in his eyes, or the dark, inhuman tone of his voice. I wondered if he'd always been so cruel and vicious, or if years of association with an exiled alien warlord and two idiotic mutant lackeys had somehow warped his cold-hearted soul even further than it had been. I didn't really care, though. I just wanted out of that prison before he decided what to do with me.

Mikey tried to work the keypad for the door, but it required a pass code, and he had little expertise with hacking- that was Don's department, after all. After several failed attempts, he grumbled in frustration and slammed a fist on the door. "Damn! It's gonna' take too long to try to crack the code. Can't try to bust it open, either- it might trip an alarm. I'll have to find the main computer room and try to override the controls. I wish I was better at that hacking crap like Donnie. Stay here, and I'll go try to open it from there! Then I'll come back for you, and we're outta' here!"

"Just where do you think I'm going to go in the meantime?!" I yelled sarcastically. I was getting impatient, and I was a little afraid of what might happen if he left me alone again. I wasn't about to admit that, though. "Of COURSE I'll stay! I haven't got a CHOICE!" I huffed in exasperation, scowling at the prospect of being stuck in the cell while he risked getting captured himself to rescue me.

"Hey, do you want out of there or NOT?! If you don't keep it down, you'll have ol' Shred-head down here to check on things, and then we'll BOTH be in a jam!" Mikey snapped. He sounded a little angry. Or maybe he was just edgy. He glanced around again, those deep honey-hued eyes darting back and forth in an almost paranoid manner. That serious, determined look was back. Gone was the joker; in his place was that focused, intense demeanor that only showed through in times of severe pressure. I'd seen it when we had been stranded in the old pump station, and when he had rescued me from the self-proclaimed "Rat King".

"Alright," I apologized, "but PLEASE hurry!" He gave a nod, then spun on his heels and took off in what I could only hope was the direction to the main computer. I was left alone again, to pace for several minutes before I finally gave up and slumped down on the ledge to wait.

I didn't have to wait long, however, before the door opened. Yet even as I jumped up and ran toward it, expecting to see Mikey, I was utterly surprised to see not my would-be savior, but our nemesis. He stood in the open doorway, staring at me silently, with a dark, almost hungry look in his eyes. I froze, as he stepped into the tiny room, those cold, malevolent eyes locked on me. He moved toward me and I backed away, almost instinctively slipping into a defensive stance.

He saw that I intended to fight, and chuckled wickedly. In an instant, he moved forward, bearing down on me. I struck out, every impulse telling me to fight. I tried every trick I knew, every move I'd been taught- and he countered them all easily. Then his clawed gauntlet flashed out at me, and I suddenly found myself on the defensive. With each strike, and each kick, he pushed me back. "The rat has trained you well, little kunoichi. But not well enough. You are no match for ME." He continued the game for a few moments longer; I realized he was holding back, that he was toying with me. Then my back bumped up against the wall, and I knew I was in trouble. There was nowhere to go- I'd already lost. And what was worse, he knew it.

His next move surprised me; he reached up to remove the face-plate of his helmet, leaning in close to me with that frightening, ravenous look on his exotically handsome face. "You have talent, little kunoichi. I could USE someone like you by my side. Why waste your time with those freaks when you could have the entire city at your feet? Think about it- we could rule this city together. Join me, and I promise you will have anything you desire! What is it you want most? Wealth? Power? Or perhaps what you seek is pleasures of the flesh? Anything you wish can be yours for the asking!"

If he had thought I would be tempted by his offer, he was sorely mistaken. All I was, was insulted. "Anything I want? Anything at all?" I asked, staring up into his sinister gaze unflinching. He had just reminded me of why I had chosen to join the turtles in their war against him in the first place.

"Yes. Anything!" He replied triumphantly with a cold smile, thinking he had me.

"Fine- I want my parents back, you sick son-of-a-bitch!" I yelled harshly, slamming one fist up into his face. "Don't flatter yourself, asshole. Unlike you, I still have honor! You think I'd sell out to a creep like you? Betray my friends for empty promises? HA! I wouldn't join you even if you made me queen of the world! You killed my FAMILY!"

In retrospect, that might have been a mistake. He took the hit, then his eyes blazed in anger, and he drew back his hand to strike out at me with a feral snarl. I turned aside, wincing, my eyes squeezed tightly shut. Only the expected hit never came. He seemed to pause for a moment, and then he began to laugh wickedly.

"So! I KNEW there was a reason you seemed familiar- I saw a picture of a young girl on the mantle when I killed those stubborn fools from the missile plant. A pity- they should have cooperated. But how did you know who I am? No one else was there!" He stared at me with narrowed eyes, clearly suspicious. I saw no reason to hide my hatred for the monster who had ripped my world apart.

"The door was open when I came home, and I knew something was wrong. I SAW you murder them! I ran and hid until you left, but I never stopped trying to find the bastard who took them from me! It was because of YOU that I asked Splinter to teach me!" I yelled; I tried to strike again, but he was ready this time, and caught my wrist before it connected.

"You should have stayed away, little girl! Your honor is meaningless, and your friends can't save you now! And now that I know who you are, it's time to tie up the only loose end remaining from that day. It's a pity you chose to stand against me- now you will learn WHY I am called 'the Shredder'!" He laughed, and with one stroke of those vicious claws, he slashed open my sport-top and light vest, and leered as he slammed me back against the wall, the tines of his gauntlet going to my throat once more. "One move, shojo, and I will send you to join your family. You live only on MY whim, girl- you would do well to remember that!"

At that moment, I heard a sound from outside, and looked up in time to see Mikey appear in the doorway. "Hey, I think it worked! Let's get outta'- SHREDDER!" He stopped dead as he saw his enemy pressing me against the wall with my clothes ripped open. His eyes blazed as he realized instantly what was happening. I never saw his hands move to his belt; all I saw was his nunchaku suddenly appear in them as if summoned. "Get away from her, or you're DEAD, dude." His voice deepened to a feral growl, more animal than human, and as cold and hard as ice.

Saki turned at the interruption, a look of surprise on his face, which was swiftly replaced by spine-chilling wrath. "What in blazes?! How did that blasted turtle get in here?!" His free hand went to a small comm-unit tucked into his sash, and he pressed a button. "Rocksteady, Bebop- report to the detention level at once! We have an intruder in the Technodrome!" He roared, before turning his attention back to my would-be savior. "So, Michelangelo, is it? Yes, of course it is. I seem to recall your mind ending up in MY body once, and I'm STILL trying to rid myself of those ridiculous late-night cravings for sashimi pizza!"

"Dude, that wasn't MY mind- that was your stupid hologram's AI program! You suck at bein' me, by the way. I don't even LIKE sashimi." I had no idea what they were talking about, and I wasn't certain I wanted to. I shot Mikey a questioning glance, but he only looked uncomfortable for a moment and then shook his head. "Uh, don't ask, babe. It's a long story."

"Bah! No matter- one step closer, shell-back, and your pretty friend here will be picking her entrails off the floor. Now, drop your weapons!" He held the claws to my front menacingly, the tips pressing slightly against my bare skin.

There was a tense silence in the tiny cell for a few seconds, but then Mikey looked down at his weapons for a heartbeat. His eyes met mine, and I saw the expression of defeat that crossed his face as he threw them down with an angry grimace. "Okay, Tin-head, you win. Just don't hurt her. You've got ME; that's what you REALLY want, isn't it? Please- just let her go."

"Ha! Nonsense! You don't REALLY think I intend to let EITHER of you live, do you? Fool! She is merely a loose end- one that I mean to cut off PERMANENTLY. By the way, I was just about to show your pretty companion how she may be useful to me in the meantime. Perhaps you'd like to watch! After all, this is probably as close as you'll ever GET to enjoying such things yourself, freak!" He laughed cruelly; I quailed, knowing what he intended. Mikey obviously did, too, and for the first time since we'd met, I saw those honey-hued eyes turn murderous.

That was when the mutant goons showed up. "Hey! It's that soifer-toitle! How'd HE get in here?" My estimation of the warthog-mutant's intelligence plummeted, and I wondered exactly what it was that Saki saw in those two. They grabbed Mikey by the arms, and the rhino- Rocksteady- shoved him down on his knees with a boot to his shell. Michelangelo shouted in pain as his arms were yanked back, and glared back at the pair with his teeth bared.

"You're gonna pay for that, Jerkwad! Stupid doseiaisha! Hitotsu'no ben! I'll tear ya' apart, Pork-breath! Baka buta!" He growled darkly; the rhino-man just pulled harder, eliciting another yelp of pain from my would-be savior. His companion merely snorted, leaning over to taunt him.

"Heh, what'cha gonna' DO about it, shell-for-brains?" In spite of my own predicament, I rolled my eyes at his unoriginal retort. Unfortunately, what they lacked in brains, they made up for in brawn. Equally unfortunately, that strength was currently aimed at my green-skinned protector. He stomped down on Mikey's left leg, eliciting a pained cry from his captive. The pair laughed, as he snarled curses at them under his breath in both English and Japanese, his eyes blazing with fury.

"Enough! Hold him while I teach this little minx a lesson she won't soon forget. If he resists, rough him up a bit. But not TOO much- I want him conscious to see his pretty friend's punishment!" He sneered and laughed coldly again; then he turned back to me and shoved me roughly backward against the narrow metal projection that served as the cell's bed. I fought desperately, but he soon overpowered me through sheer strength, and grabbed me by both wrists, pulling them up over my head. With one hand he held them in a vice-like grip, while he savagely popped open my jeans and yanked them down with the other.

It was when he flipped me over onto my stomach against the cold, hard shelf that I truly became afraid. He held me down with his hand on the back of my neck, the blades of his gauntlet just inches from my face. I felt his knee shove my legs apart, and then….. I let out a scream of fear, pain, anger, and outrage as he rammed into me from behind. I could dimly hear Mikey's enraged shouts from the doorway, while his captors laughed and made crude jokes. I wasn't sure which was worse, the physical torment, or the humiliation of being brutally abused right in front of him. I turned my head toward the door, and saw him struggling frantically in the grip of the two larger and much stronger mutants, an expression of murderous intent in his normally gentle and caring eyes. If he could have broken free, I had little doubt there would have been blood spilled.

Yet in spite of his efforts to break free, he was no match physically for the muscle-bound brutes holding him down. They took turns kicking at him, their heavy boots slamming into the thin scutes of the bridge connecting the two halves of his shell, making him yell in pain in between the snarled insults he hurled at them. A vague part of me was shocked to hear the vicious words spewing from his mouth, some of which even Raph would have recoiled at. And he's got the foulest mouth of anyone I know.

I don't know how long it went on, because after the first minute or two, I simply turned off all conscious thought, wanting only for the torture to end. I felt something wet on my face, and realized almost absently that I was crying. I'd stopped screaming some time ago, knowing it was useless. The heartless monster shoving into me felt no pity or remorse. He considered me nothing more than a means of taking revenge on his enemies, starting with the one held helplessly before him. When he was finished, he yanked me backward by the neck and threw me into the corner against the far wall of the cell with enough force to make me see stars. I slipped shakily to the floor, and curled into a tight ball, trembling from the pain and shock of what he'd done, as he slowly adjusted his hakama and haori back into place, leering at me with an air of cold satisfaction.

As he stalked out the door of the tiny room, he paused outside and turned to his two thugs. "Lock him up in here with his friend. They can both rot in here until I decide how to get rid of them. And don't forget to search him first!" He said sternly, before turning away.

"Search 'im?! But Boss, 'e ain't GOT nuthin'! WE gots' his weapons!" The rhino protested, clearly not getting the point. I would have laughed, if I hadn't been in so much pain. At the moment, all I could do was tremble in shock and try to keep from crying.

Shredder whirled back to his hench-mutants. "IDIOT! He is NINJA! Those shell-backs ALWAYS have something hidden in their gear! And he's probably got one of those communicators they always carry. FIND it, and anything else he might use to escape!" I could see that Saki was losing patience with his subordinate- not that he seemed to have much of it to begin with. But my heart sank, realizing that our one chance of rescue was about to be snatched away.

He stormed off down the corridor and disappeared, leaving us at the mercy of his two goons. "Well, you hoid the Boss! Let's soich 'im!" The warthog- Bebop, I reminded myself- said gleefully. They proceeded to yank off Mikey's belt with the pouch of shuriken and his shell-cell hidden in it, then tugged off the pads on his arms and knees, his watch, and even took his mask in case there might be something hidden there. They were anything but gentle with him, and at one point in his struggles, Rocksteady grabbed the back of his head, pushing him down as he slammed his knee into Mikey's face.

"Nai-chisei okubyomono! Baka ton'ma! Pig-faced asshole! Shiseiji! That's TWENTY I owe ya' for, ya' fuckin' horn-headed musuko no aru abazureon'na- and your stinkin' gei'no butt-buddy, too! You're cruisin' for a MAJOR bruisin' when I get out of here, ya' fugly creeps!" He snarled angrily. I was surprised he'd been keeping count, but then I realized he fully intended to pay them back for every injury. Unfortunately for him, the threat seemed to fall flat on his tormentors.

"Yeah, right! Keep dreamin', wimp!" Bebop replied, snorting. His partner echoed with a "Yeah! WIMP!" and laughed as he slammed a fist into the back of Mikey's head. Then they shoved him to the floor as they left, and let the door shut behind them.

As soon as they were all gone, Mikey shakily pulled himself up to his knees and scuttled over to me as quickly as his aching limbs would allow. He hissed in pain with every move he made, and he was covered with the marks of what would soon be ugly bruises. His nose bled, and one eye was already beginning to swell shut. There were cracks in the bridge of his shell- possibly a sign of cracked ribs, and I was fairly sure his leg was broken. Yet in spite of his injuries, the thing that bothered me most was that he'd been stripped of his dignity along with his gear. Seeing him so naked- and never mind the fact that he never wore any clothes to speak of in the first place- just seemed so…. Wrong.

He slid close to me, reaching out gently to touch my arm as I huddled in the corner. I flinched, and he pulled away with a look of confusion and worry. "Hey, it's okay- it's just me. He's gone now. I- I'm sorry I couldn't stop that creep. Don't worry, I'm gonna' get you out of here- I swear it. You gonna' be okay?" He seemed at a loss what to do, knowing what I'd just endured at the hands of his worst enemy. I glanced up at him, and shook my head.

"Please, d-don't l-leave me ag-again!" I choked out, my voice barely a whisper. Mikey gently pulled me closer, and I fell into his arms with a sob, burying my face against his shoulder. He stroked my back consolingly, whispering "I'm sorry," as those strong arms wrapped around me protectively.

I felt beaten. Saki's assault had left me feeling weak and afraid- something I'd sworn I would never be again. Though he had done it purely out of revenge and spite, it felt as if every fear I'd ever imagined had suddenly come to life, tearing away the veneer of confidence and strength I'd believed I had gained. In one dark moment, he had shattered my faith in myself.

We stayed that way for several minutes, until Michelangelo finally pulled away and tried to rise. I whimpered softly, clutching at my only source of comfort in that hellish nightmare, but he gently pried me loose with a murmured reassurance, and limped to the metal ledge to lean against it while he studied our prison. I felt cold, as if he'd suddenly abandoned me, until he reached back- groaning in pain from the way the two mutant lackeys had held his arms- and felt around under the top edge of his carapace, where it curved around behind his shoulders. He came away with a kunai with a piece of black electrical tape stuck to it, and smirked.

"Good thing those morons didn't think to check under the hood. Heh, sometimes I LOVE bein' a turtle…" He said, tugging the tape off the small throwing blade and wadding it into a ball. "Now, let's see if we can't find a way outta' here before those bastards come back." I nodded mutely, still shaking from the abuse. He looked back over at me with brow ridges furrowed with worry, and a scowl of concern marring his normally animated face. He limped to the door and felt around the wall next to it, searching for a crease in the thick metal panels. I wasn't sure what he was trying to do, until he began to pry loose one of the panels and pull on it. I saw that he had found the back of the keypad for the door lock, and now he studied it closely, frowning in concentration.

Several seconds passed, while he tried to decide how to disable the device. "Wish I was better at this techie crap," he muttered to himself in annoyance. "Maybe I'll have Donnie teach me how to do this kind of stuff when we get back. Wouldn't hurt to have someone else who knows how to do this if somethin' happens to our hacker-boy." He evidently found what he wanted, because he brightened, reaching inside to tug at one of the wires connecting the mechanism to the door. "I think I got it!" He said excitedly, and I heard a slight click as something inside moved. A moment later, the door began to slide open. He breathed a sigh of relief, before turning to me once again.

"Okay, let's get the Hell out of here. I've had about as much of this place as I can stand." He hobbled back over to me, holding one hand out to help me up. I simply sat staring at it for several long seconds, still in shock. My mind had gone numb, refusing even to acknowledge that we were free. He scowled again, and gently pulled me up to my feet, wrapping one arm around me in a gesture of support as he felt the tremors wracking my body. "Come on- I know you're hurt and scared, but we don't have time for a break-down right now," he said softly, and tilted my face to meet his gaze. "You can DO this- it's just like those mental discipline exercises Splinter taught you- remember? You just gotta' push through it and find your center." He continued, prompting me gently.

"I- I can't…." I whispered, sobbing again. He held tighter, and sighed.

"I can carry you if I have to, but I REALLY need you to be strong now, okay? This place is crawling with those damned robots, not to mention all kinds of dangerous security- like traps and stuff. And believe it or not, Rocksteady and Bebop aren't the ONLY mutant nasties he's got running around in this place. If we want to get home safe, you HAVE to help me out here, understand? I'll be right with you. I promise."

"I'm so stupid!" I said between sobs. "I thought I could fight, that I could help you guys, but I was wrong. I'm just in the way. I'm not strong enough. Leo was right- I should never have gotten involved." Maybe it was just self-pity talking, but I felt so lost and weak, like a kitten among wolves, and somehow all I could think of was how easily Shredder had forced me down and taken away my pride and courage. I remembered his words, of how he would break me- and I understood what he had meant.

"Shh, don't talk like that. You're not in the way- it took us YEARS to learn things that you've learned in just a few months! Don't be so hard on yourself. So you couldn't beat him; big deal. He's just got more experience. You're already good enough to take on the Dragons, the Turks, or anyone else in this town! You just need a little time, that's all. Heck, you took him on with just a board, when you didn't even know the first thing about fightin'! That takes a lot of guts! Ya' can't give up now, 'cause if you do, then he wins. That's what he wants. You want to let him win? C'mon, I know you're tougher that that!" Michelangelo gripped my arms with firm but gentle hands, and he shook me slightly, trying to reach through the fear to the person I'd been before. A part of me wanted to believe him, but it was drowned out by the voice of doubt.

"I just feel s-so weak!" I admitted, and collapsed against his shoulder again. "I'm in over my head, and I- I just…." I didn't even know how to say what I felt. It was too hard, too painful.

Mikey pulled away slowly, looking straight into my eyes. "Y'know what? Maybe you're right. Maybe you're just not cut out for this. It's too bad, though. What about your folks? Are ya' gonna' just forget about what he did to them? All that talk about wantin' justice- I guess that's all it really was. What would they say if they saw you now?" His voice had turned stern and pitiless, and for a moment, I felt a burning, fierce rage bubble up inside. I jerked way and slapped him. Hard.

"How DARE you!" I spat. "Don't you EVER talk to me about them like that again! I-" I paused in mid-rant, as a wide grin spread over his face and he rubbed his jaw.

"Pretty good backhand, there. Wasn't sure ya' had it in you," He chuckled softly. I suddenly realized what I'd done.

"Oh! I- I'm sorry…." I stopped, and it hit me what had just happened. I rounded on him again, ready to beat him into a pulp for trying to manipulate me. I swung at him, but he caught my wrist easily, and held on. "You JERK! You did that on purpose! I should-" I fumed, only to have his other hand clamp over my mouth, as he glanced back toward the open door worriedly.

"Shh! Not so loud! And yeah, I did. Got ya' riled up though, didn't I? Hang onto that. Go ahead- get mad, but be mad at HIM. He's the one who deserves it. Let the anger keep you going. Sometimes that's all we have." He let go of me, his hand lowering slowly away from my mouth.

"You really are a bastard, you know that?" I asked, still glaring at him. Mikey just smirked, and shrugged as if it meant nothing.

"Yeah. I get that a lot. Well, you comin', or not?" He said, glancing over his shoulder as he cautiously stepped out of the cell into the corridor beyond. I picked up the kunai he'd used to pry open the wall panel, and looked at it dubiously.

"With just THIS? You MUST be joking. We're going to die down here, aren't we?" I asked. I'm not normally a glass-half-empty kind of girl, but I had to be realistic about our chances.

Mikey looked at me and grinned. "Think of it as a challenge. Your first real test as a kunoichi. Breaking INTO a place is one thing. Breaking OUT? That's a whole different game." He plucked the kunai from my hand, and winked at me. "Besides, you wouldn't want things to get boring, would you?"

"Ugh, we're doomed…." I muttered, as I followed him out into the empty metal passage.

We slipped silently along the seemingly endless corridor, keeping close to the wall. All too soon we came to a junction, with a second passage that ran off to the left while the main one continued on ahead of us. "Which way?" I asked nervously, pressing close against his shell. He turned down the side-passage, and I followed with one hand on the rim of his shell, afraid to be separated from him. He didn't seem to mind, thankfully, reaching back to squeeze my hand reassuringly.

"First things first- we need some weapons if we're gonna' get out of here in one piece. We have to find the armory, but I'm not sure where it is. I think it's on one of the levels above us. Donnie would probably know, 'cause he downloaded the schematics for this place last time we were here, but he's not here. We'll just have to take the lift up to the next level and hope we find it." I was surprised to hear him thinking so logically, though it bothered me that we would be going further into the fortress, rather than heading straight for the exit. I realized that once again, without his brothers around to rely on, Mikey was stepping into the role of leader as easily as if born to it. It made me wonder what he was truly capable of. Just as he had when we had been stranded during the flood and fought our way free of the rat hordes and the maniac who had controlled them, he was displaying a side that seemed far more mature and serious than his usual goofy, playful facade. It was as if his invisible "mask" had been stripped away along with the one he normally wore.

"Do we really HAVE to?" I asked; I just wanted OUT of there as fast as possible.

"Unless you want to face a bunch of those robots with just THIS, yeah." He held up the kunai, as if to remind me of how woefully inadequate it was. I swallowed, knowing he was right. If we came across more than one or two of the Foot ninja robots, we'd be in real trouble. Our best chance of survival was to arm ourselves quickly. Besides, I might be good enough to deal with common street thugs, but an army of artificial fighters? Not a chance.

He suddenly made a cutting motion with one hand, a signal to be silent, and ducked into the shadows behind the opening of a blast-door, pulling me with him. He fingered the small blade in anticipation, as he waited for something. How he had known they were coming, I didn't understand, but after several seconds, a pair of the very robots he had warned about approached from the passage ahead. He signed for me to get ready, and just as they passed by us, he stepped out behind the one furthest from us, and grabbed it by the head and neck. I heard a metallic scraping sound, as he snapped its neck and ripped off the head. I darted out behind the other one, just as it turned toward its unfortunate companion, and quickly did the same, yanking with all my might. The robots jerked aimlessly for a moment, then fell over in twin heaps of pajama-clad junk.

"Two down; who-knows-how-many to go," Mikey said flatly. I flinched slightly at his tone- it was cold, devoid of any emotion. It gave me chills to hear him talk like that. He crouched down, tugging the haori off of one of the robots, and tossing it to me. "Here. Put this on- it's kinda' distracting havin' your top ripped open like that. Makes it hard to stay focused." Without even looking to see if I did as told, he continued checking the downed machines for anything useful. He yanked the obi off of the one he'd unclothed, and tied it around his own middle as a makeshift belt. He took the blaster strapped over the shoulder of the robot, keeping it for himself, and found several shuriken tucked into sheaths on a bandoleer. He took those, too.

"Grab the weapons from that one," He said, tucking a pair of tanto blades into the obi he had taken. Lastly, he took the arm and shin guards from the first robot, and put them on. "I guess this'll have to do, but I'd give my left arm for a set of 'chucks right now," he sighed, rising. He waited while I did as he had done, taking the armor and weapons of the second robot to arm myself.

I looked him over, and was just a little unnerved by the change. The blaster and other items strapped on in the manner of a military soldier made him seem somehow more threatening. There was something just a bit "off" about the vision of him as a gun-toting commando-type. Something about it just bothered me. Maybe it was the fact that it didn't fit with the personality I had come to know so well. This was someone darker, and perhaps just a little colder.

"Okay, now what?" I asked, more anxious than ever to be gone. I felt strange wearing the Foot robot's attire. Still, as he had said, it was better than nothing.

"We should try to find our T-coms and stuff. I don't want to listen to Don carping about loosin' them again." He grimaced as he set off again, continuing down the same passage.

"Mikey, it's not worth hunting for them. They can be replaced!" I protested, concerned that he might put us in unnecessary danger. "Donnie will understand- it's too dangerous!" I reminded him adamantly. Just when I had thought he was being sensible and focused for a change, he suddenly showed his impulsive, self-centered side. Or so I thought.

"It's the principle! I can't let those jerks get away with this- and DAMN IT, I want my 'CHUCKS back!" He snarled, whirling on me. I jerked back, shocked at the sudden change in my companion. He seemed to realize he had frightened me, and an expression of remorse passed over his face. "Sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you. It's just- I want to stick it to those two punks for beatin' the crap outta' me like that. Besides, if Don can track US with our T-coms, Krang could do the same to the others. Do ya' really want those creeps findin' our home? We HAVE to get them back, or at least keep those slime-balls from usin' 'em to hunt us down."

I had to agree that it made sense. And as much as I hated to admit it, there was a good chance that they could use our shell-cells to find the lair- and I didn't want to think about what that would mean. Anything that gave our enemies an advantage was worth the risk, I supposed. "Alright, but how do we find them? This place is huge. Where should we even START?" I asked, conceding his point. I really hate it when he suckers me into doing what he wants. That boy is a first-class expert at influencing others. It's almost scary at times.

"The objective still stands- most likely, all our gear is on one of the top levels somewhere- either in the armory, or maybe in one of their personal quarters- someplace close by Krang and Shredder. That means we have to be REAL careful about not gettin' caught again. Now, let's stash these things before another of those patrols comes along and finds 'em. The LAST thing we need is someone sounding an alarm!" He was making sense again, and I started to wonder just how much of his usual off-the-wall manner was just a way of misleading others into underestimating his abilities.

"I was right," I muttered sourly. "We ARE going to die down here."

"Nah- there's no lickers or Red Queen down here- at least, not that I know of. Tin-grin may be a sadistic, ruthless S-O-B, but at least he's not as bad as the guys who built the place in that movie!" He quipped, giving me a lop-sided grin. Then he seemed to reconsider. "At least I HOPE not. I just hope he never saw that one, 'cause it might give him ideas…."

"You're really weird, you know that?" I said, shaking my head in annoyance as we picked up the two defunct machines and began to lug them along with us. He merely chuckled and then waved me to continue down the passage.

A few dozen yards further down, we came upon a small door in the wall, and Mikey signaled a halt. "This looks like a good place to stash our metal buds. I'm kinda tired of luggin' these heavy things around, anyway." He pressed a button on the wall, and the door slid open with a rush of air. Inside was what looked like a storage closet.

"Perfect! In ya' go, buddy!" He chirped, tossing the robot inside with a loud clang. I shoved mine in beside it, and glanced around to see what sort of equipment was inside. It appeared to be full of cleaning supplies and spare parts for maintenance robots- or whatever passed for a cleaning crew. I somehow doubted that Shredder or his alien partner would stoop to doing it themselves. Maybe that's why he kept those idiot mutants around. They certainly didn't seem to be good for much else.

"Anything useful in there?" He inquired, poking his head into the small room. One fast glance around, and he shook his head in negation. "Looks like we keep going. Nothin' of interest in here." He pushed the button to close the door, then moved silently down the corridor again. I followed close behind, still feeling as nervous as the proverbial long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. I kept glancing behind us, certain that at any moment we were going to end up like Han in the Death Star after running into the room full of Storm Troopers. My only consolation was that Shredder's robots seemed to be students of the Imperial Academy of Marksmanship.

A few dozen yards further down, we came to another junction, this time going in four directions. The path ahead continued for about a hundred feet before it ended in a large doorway with a set of doors that slid up and down to meet in the middle. The other corridors simply continued on.

"There's the lift up ahead," Mikey said, peeking cautiously to the left and right down the other passages. "Looks clear," he added; he glanced down at his blaster to check it anyway, just in case.

"So what's down those?" I asked, curious. All I could see was a few small doors.

"Probably just more cells. I think there's a couple dozen on this level," He replied. "Come on, let's keep going. The longer we stand here, the bigger the chance we'll get spotted."

"Seems like a waste of an entire level for just a few cells," I mused. "What do you suppose they did with the rest of this level?"

"What do you THINK they used it for?" He shot back with a sharp glance, raising one brow-ridge. I pondered that for a moment, and nodded as I realized what he meant.

"Let me guess, interrogation and torture, right? Got'cha. Real friendly pair." He nodded back, and we darted across the intersection to the doors ahead of us.

As soon as we got to them, however, we discovered a problem. The lift was in use, and it was headed down- right to us! "Get ready," Mikey muttered. "Make sure the safety's off on that thing, or it's not gonna' do you much good." I did so, and we plastered ourselves against the wall on either side of the doors as the lift came to a stop. The doors slowly opened, and Mikey risked a swift peek inside as they parted.

I mouthed a question to him, asking how many were inside, and he held up the fingers of one hand briefly- then seemed to realize he didn't have enough fingers, and held up both. Four? I mouthed, and he nodded. He signed for me to take the two on my side, and he would takethe other two. I nodded back, and we both spun and began shooting before the doors had even fully opened. I missed the first shot, and it ricocheted wildly, almost rebounding back at me. I corrected my aim, and the next two shots hit home on the robots inside, putting searing holes through their heads. Score one for the home team! I thought, grinning wickedly. I was beginning to feel a bit of perverse satisfaction at destroying those things.

Once the smoke of burnt wires and melted metal had cleared, I kicked aside one of the ruined Foot-bots, and we stepped inside. An odd thought occurred to me just then, and I had to ask him about it, if only to assuage my curiosity. "Hey- I thought you didn't know much about guns. How is it you're such a good shot with these?" I inquired, glancing at him thoughtfully. "I thought Leo was the only one who was familiar with firearms."

Mikey snorted. "Pfft, PLEASE! With all the FPS games I play?! You're kidding, right? Just because I don't mess around with the real thing much doesn't mean I don't KNOW about 'em. I just don't LIKE guns. Besides, these are different- they don't use bullets. Easier to shoot." He shrugged, and left it at that. I sighed, and shook my head in frustration- just when I thought I had him figured out, he'd throw another curve-ball my way, figuratively speaking. So it was the game-fanatic in him that had surfaced, and not another hidden skill I'd discovered. Or perhaps it was both, though by now, the distinction was beginning to blur. I had to wonder, though- just what kind of guy WAS he, underneath it all? Eternal adolescent, mature adult, wise warrior, or puerile prankster? Or was it somewhere in between? At that point, I'd all but given up trying to understand who he really was.


	13. Chapter 13: Techno-Syn-Drome

AN: This chapter is actually the first of two parts- because there was so much in it that I simply HAD to cut it in half! But worry not, folks! There's plenty here to enjoy, and more of the darker, more serious Mikey! for everyone who loved SAINW, this is the chapter for you!

Techno-Syn-Drome

As soon as the lift doors closed, Mikey crouched down with a hiss of pain as he jarred his broken leg, to check the remains for anything that might potentially prove useful. All he found were a few smoke bombs, three small EMP grenades, and a pair of kamas. The kamas he handed to me, and took a second blaster himself. Then he did something unexpected; he took out the kunai, cut the black sash from one of the robots short, and poked a pair of holes in it. He lifted it up to examine his work, and nodded in satisfaction before tying it in place of his missing mask. The effect was more than a little disturbing, for it gave him a far more dangerous appearance, and the color seemed somehow wrong on him.

"Overkill, much?" I asked, glancing down at the purloined blades before glancing back to him as he slung the other gun across his back. "Why do you need another one of those?" I wasn't complaining about having the kamas- they were at least more familiar than the energy weapons, and I felt more comfortable using them. After all, I'd almost picked a set as my chosen weapon, until Splinter had shown me the war-fans. I still remembered the almost instant connection I'd felt when I'd first held them. I wished I had my pair with me now.

"Back-up. In case one runs out of juice. Sheesh, you haven't watched me run through Halo or Call of Duty much, have you? Ya' ALWAYS end up needin' a back-up gun. The only difference here is if we get shot- there's no reset button. So don't get hit."

I gave up trying to decide if he was joking, or if he really thought a video game stategy would help. Then again, maybe he had something there. It couldn't hurt, at least. "Okay, so where to now? You're in charge, Master Chief!" I said, with a mock salute. He snorted, and rolled his eyes as he staggered back to his feet. I helped him up, letting him lean on me to keep his weight off the broken leg.

"I'd say we start with level six- here. The crew quarters are on that level. That's where the mutants and rock soldiers bunk." He pointed down at the panel on a small platform stand that held the controls. "Then we check the main control room, and their personal quarters, startin' with Tin-head's. I'd bet one of Vinnie's Ultra-Supreme pizzas that he's got 'em stashed in his own room. The main control room and Krang's suite are somewhere on level eight, I think. Saki's must be close to it, 'cause those two act like they're joined at the hip. Well, maybe not, since Krang doesn't have any, but you get the idea."

I looked down, trying to avoid that intense gaze. At last, unable to stand the silence, I kicked at one of the Foot-bots, and scowled. "What do we do with these? We can't leave them here- someone's bound to use this lift and figure out we've escaped. Any suggestions?"

"If I was Don, I'd have fixed a couple of 'em up and reprogrammed 'em, but that's out of my league. I guess we can toss 'em down the shaft. Doubt anyone will find 'em down there." He muttered, looking over the side into the dark abyss below. The lift itself was little more than a large platform with a guard rail on three sides, and the control panel attached to the side where the doors would open on each level.

I contemplated that notion, and decided it would have to do. "Why not. It's better than trying to drag them around and hope we find another supply closet to stash them in." I set to work, shoving them over the edge one after the other. Mikey did the same, though with limited success, considering his injuries. I was sure the cracked ribs from his beating seriously hampered his efforts, but I understood that he needed to feel useful, if only to reassure himself that he hadn't become a liability. As far as I was concerned, he was only proving just how resilient they all were.

After the last one had gone tumbling down the shaft in a clatter of metal junk, I tossed him a half-hearted grin and stifled a giggle. "Think anyone heard that racket?" I asked, only half-joking.

He scowled darkly, but shook his head. "Don't think so. Let's just keep moving; if we're lucky, we'll find our gear and be gone before anyone figures out where we are. But I'm not gonna' hold my breath on that one. Our luck's always been spotty at best." He seemed to be thinking of something in the past, and I wondered what was going through that mind. Something was bothering him, that was certain.

The lift stopped, and we cautiously peeked out before stepping into another seemingly endless corridor. I was beginning to feel like a rat in a maze. I briefly wondered if Splinter ever had moments like this, but promptly shook my head to clear that thought. It was simply too ridiculous. So far, we'd been lucky, but as Michelangelo had already pointed out, that could change at any second. I let out a shaky breath, ready for anything as we slipped silently along the half-lit passage, past dozens of identical small doors on either side, searching for one in particular. "Do you know which one those two use?" I asked, hoping Mikey knew what he was doing.

"Not exactly, but it shouldn't be too hard to find- we just have to follow our noses. We'll know it by the SMELL if nothin' else. And I think we're gettin' close, 'cause somethin' around here stinks! And that's sayin' somethin', comin' from a guy who lives in a sewer." He replied sourly, a look of disgust on his face. I sniffed, and realized he was right. There was an odd, distinctly unpleasant odor- it reminded me of a dairy-barn or a dirty chicken coop- coming from somewhere ahead, and it was getting stronger the further we went.

At that moment, the door ahead of us opened, and out stepped the mutant rhino. He turned toward us, and froze as he spotted us. "Hey! That bimbo and the soifer-toitle are loose!" He reached for his weapon, only to belatedly realize he had none. He turned to rush back into the room he'd come from, but even with an injured leg, Mikey was faster.

Without a word, Michelangelo launched himself at Rocksteady with his head down like a battering ram and the full force of his weight- all one hundred seventy-odd pounds of muscle, sinew, and bone-hard shell. He slammed into the larger mutant's gut, wrapping his arms around him, barreling the rhino-man into the wall. There was a grunt of surprise and pain from the hulking mutant; no sooner had Mikey rammed his enemy into the gleaming silvery wall with a resounding metallic "thunk", than he began to pummel the other mutant with his fists, a stream of sharply-spoken Japanese spewing from his mouth in a harsh torrent of words. I winced at the vindictive string of curses- though I couldn't understand a word, I could guess at the gist of it- and watched in utter disbelief as he continued to wail on the rhino-thug with the intensity of Raph pounding on his punching bag. The subject of the abuse grunted, yelped, and groaned with each hit, as a flurry of blows rained down on him from the much smaller turtle. I was fairly certain I heard several sharp cracks, and it occurred to me that Mikey was paying him back for his own cracked ribs by returning the favor.

After a few seconds, however, I realized something odd. There was an almost rhythmic cadence and a repetativeness to the words coming from Mikey, and it suddenly hit me- he wasn't cursing, he was COUNTING! At last, he paused to catch his breath, and grabbed Rocksteady by the horn on his snout, yanking down on it forcefully, bringing his knee up into the goon's lower jaw. I heard a snapping sound, and several teeth went flying from his mouth. The tough-skinned thug protested loudly, and his eyes went wide in shock and agony as the knee of Mikey's injured leg came up again- right into his groin. The rhino howled in pain; at least, he would have, if he could have found his breath, as Mikey followed up by slamming an open palm into the other's throat with a feral growl. "Who's the wimp NOW, horn-head?!" Mikey snarled angrily, delivering one last punch to the other's temple for good measure. "I told you I'd pay you back for all those hits. Now we're even." He watched with a satisfied smirk as the big mutant's eyes crossed, and he slid down to the floor on his knees, gasping and moaning pitifully as he cradled his injured parts.

I stood staring at him, stunned by the vicious and purely vengeful attack. "What are you doing- channeling Raph, now?! Was that REALLY necessary?" I asked after he'd cooled down for a few seconds. He was panting from the effort of taking out his anger on the other mutant, and the exertion appeared to have taken a toll on him, for the deep malachite hue of his skin looked paler than usual.

"He had it comin'." He said in a low growl. "Paybacks are a real bitch, huh, gack-face?" He said to the rhino, as he nudged him with his left foot. He crouched down next to the beaten heap of his foe with a grimace of discomfort, and held the kunai up in front of Rocksteady's nose. "Now, normally, I'm a real forgiving kind of guy, but you and your 'boss' have got me REALLY cheesed off right now. So we're gonna' play a little game of 'Question and Answer'. I ask a question, and you answer. Get it? And I'll know if you're lyin', so don't even try."

The rhino-man shook his head to clear it, and glared at the smaller mutant. "Get bent, toitle! I ain't afraid o' you. Yous' just a wimpy do-gooder. I ain't tellin' you NOTHIN'!" He growled, his contempt of his enemy clear. I saw Mikey's eyes narrow, and a decidedly nasty grin spread over his beak. He glanced over at me, and for just a moment I thought he winked, but his next words made my blood run like ice-water.

"Too bad. Maybe you SHOULD be- has old Tin-face ever told you about ninja interrogation techniques? You know, things like breaking fingers, or cutting off ears? I've never had a chance to try any of that stuff before; maybe now's a good time to start! What do ya' think? Should I start with cuttin' my name into your hide? Or maybe gouge out an eye?"

I stared down in shock at what he had just suggested. Surely he wasn't serious?! But then I saw the look of doubt that crossed the mutant thug's face, and the maniacal gleam in my companion's eyes, and realized that serious or not, he had just given Rocksteady a very GOOD reason to fear him. Hoping he really was bluffing, I decided to play along.

"Oh, I don't know- I'm sure I can think of a few ideas to get him to talk. I owe this jerk a little repayment, myself." I interrupted, getting down beside Mikey. I smiled as I pulled out the kamas, and set one against the rhino's left ear, and the other much, MUCH lower- just below his belt, with the tip poking uncomfortably against the still-tender spot Mikey had kneed. He didn't have to be told to know what I was suggesting, and his eyes suddenly went wide as dinner plates.

"Okay, okay! I'll tell yous anythin' you want!" He stammered, seeing that we both threatened permanent bodily harm. He was definitely starting to learn respect, at least. I suspected that perhaps he was used to such threats from his own superior, a thought I found almost sad. Like most bullies, he was actually a bit of a coward.

"GOOD little mutant henchman! 'Kay, first question: what did you jerks do with our gear? I want it back." Mikey's smile disappeared, replaced by a cold, dead calm. The ease with which he had changed gears from psycho-clown to detached interrogator sent a chill through me.

The thug scratched his head with a look of bewilderment for a moment, and shrugged. "Um, I dunno. Bebop had it last. But he ain't here." He shook his head and shrugged, looking up at us nervously.

"Okay, then- next question: if he's not HERE, where IS he?" Mikey asked, with an exasperated sigh. He fiddled with the kunai, glancing up and down the hallway anxiously, ready to bolt in an instant.

"Uh- lem'me see…. Oh! I think he went up to see da' Boss!" The hulking mutant answered brightly, looking up at us hopefully. He had become almost helpful, though I knew it was more a matter of his fear of punishment if he didn't cooperate. I decided that he was an opportunist, always looking for the easiest and most profitable path in any situation. He was also something of a survivor, if he had managed to keep his skin intact this long with such a ruthless and merciless boss.

"O-kaaay. And where exactly IS that?" Mikey asked impatiently, absently flipping the small blade between his fingers. The rhino-man saw the way my companion played with the weapon, and gulped. He knew better than to annoy someone who could kick his rear.

"He's with Krang in the portal room. Krang's watchin' his soaps. Bebop wanted to find out what happened to John and Marsha. I got bored." He huffed in annoyance, sounding upset that his partner had chosen to ignore him in favor of a television drama.

Mikey stared at him, baffled by his reply. "Krang watches soaps? Huh- who knew? Thanks for the help- now, what am I gonna' do with you?" He said, looking down at his captive thoughtfully.

"Please don't hoit me! I won't tell 'em yous' got loose! I promise!" Rocksteady looked worried, and I realized that he was more concerned about what his "employer" would do when he found out that the mutant had let us escape than he was about what we might do to him. It was pathetic, really.

"Yeah- about that…. Sorry, dude, but we can't let you warn anyone that we escaped, so I guess we're gonna' have to make sure you DON'T tell 'em. Sucks to be you, dude." He drew back his hand with the kunai in it, aiming for the rhino-man's head. I saw the thug's eyes turn huge in fear; then Mikey spun the blade in his hand at the last second as he drove it home, slamming the butt of it into Rocksteady's temple with a heavy thud. The mutant's eyes rolled back, and he fell over, out cold.

"Geez, I thought you were going to kill him!" I said, letting out a breath I hadn't even realized I was holding. As much as I disliked the idiot pair, I had almost begun to feel sorry for him, seeing how much he feared his own leader.

"Nah, I might be pissed at this jackass, but I AIN'T a murderer. Splinter taught us to be better than that. C'mon, we need to get him out of sight and find somethin' to restrain him with before someone sees us." He tucked his weapon back into his sash, and bent over to heft the rhino up, throwing one limp arm over his shoulders. He caught a whiff of the larger mutant's stench, and gagged. "Ugh, don't these two EVER bathe?!" He complained, for once sounding a bit more like his old self. I hurried to take the thug's other arm, and together we dragged him back into the room he had come from.

Until we entered that room, I had never understood the old cliché about living in a pig-sty. I certainly did now. The place was disgusting- and that was just the SMELL. The walls were splattered with the remains of things I didn't even want to TRY to identify, and the floor was covered with more stains than a truckload of bleach and Oxy-Clean could ever get out, in more colors than I had ever dreamed existed. And that was the parts of it that were actually VISIBLE. The rest of the room was strewn with dirty laundry- mostly stained underwear and tank shirts, I noticed- take-out boxes, half-eaten apples and banana peels, torn comics and newspapers, and even some left-over dishes with moldy bits of unidentifiable food still sitting on them. Flies buzzed around everything, and several strips of flypaper- all completely coated with the pests- hung about the room.

"My god- I see what you meant about finding their quarters by the smell! How can anyone LIVE like this?!" I asked, looking around at the ripped and soiled sheets on the two narrow beds, the broken and mended chairs and table, and the cracked mirror over a sink that was presumably for shaving, brushing teeth, and other daily rituals- though I highly doubted it was ever used for its intended purpose. It looked more like it was used as a spittoon and for washing laundry. There was even a small alcove that served as a bathroom, with a toilet and shower-stall, though the toilet was so stained and filthy I wondered how the pair could even stand to use it. Oddly, the shower appeared relatively clean; then again, I suspected it didn't see much use. A small set of shelves sat on one wall, with an old television and a DVD-player on top of it, and comics, dirty magazines, and movie cases lying haphazardly on the shelves below. I couldn't help noticing that most of the videos were pornos or cheesy kung-fu movies and action films.

"Gross- and Leo thinks MY room is bad! He should see this place- that'd shut him up." Mikey commented sourly, wrinkling his nose in distaste. I had to agree.

We dragged the big mutant over to one of the beds, and began to hunt through the random heaps of the pair's belongings for something to use as a restraint. I found some bolas, which Mikey used to wrap tightly around his legs, and then he spotted the whip-chain Rocksteady had used on me earlier, and we pinned his arms to his sides with it. Then he gingerly plucked a dirty sock off the floor, wadded it up, and shoved it into the slack jaws of the thug. I shot him a questioning glance, but he just shrugged and grinned impishly. "Paybacks for somethin' he did a while back." He said cryptically. I stifled a chuckle, knowing his sense of justice was a bit skewed at times.

As we cautiously slipped back out of the room, Mikey used the kunai to pry off the door panel and rip the wires out of it before carefully replacing the panel where it had been. He checked his handiwork, finally nodding in satisfaction before we silently made our way back to the lift. So far, we had been fortunate, encountering few enemies, but I was growing more worried by the minute, wondering how long our luck would hold out. We rode it up to level eight in silence, both of us tense. I began to wonder if Mikey was finally back to his normal self, but when the lift stopped unexpectedly only one level up, we both readied our blasters and spun to the sides of the doors as they opened, prepared to go out shooting if necessary.

The doors slid apart with a soft hiss, and in stepped four more of the seemingly endless supply of robot soldiers. I began to wonder just where Shredder was getting so many of them, even as we once again made short work of them, this time with the pilfered kamas and tantos. Given the close quarters we were in, we quickly realized the blasters were out of the question- after the first two Foot-bots grabbed for the weapons as we fired on them, causing the shots to fly up into the shaft above us. Instead of grappling with them for the energy weapons, we simply yanked out our blades and sliced through the robots' necks- their weakest point. I kicked one back into the rails, and it went tumbling over the side to clatter down to the bottom of the lift, there to join the busted remains of the others we had dispatched.

"You know, if this keeps up, we'll have this place cleared out by the time we find our gear," I commented dryly as we shoved the smoking heaps of the remaining three down the shaft. I was answered with a cynical snort from my hard-shelled companion.

"Doubtful. They've got a whole factory for these things in here- he just keeps makin' 'em every time we trash a bunch of 'em. Looks like we just took out another patrol unit." He sighed heavily, and I got the feeling that he was frustrated and annoyed by the delay they had caused.

"What's on this level?" I asked, curiosity beginning to take over from fear. As long as we were running around inside a giant high-tech fortress, I decided it couldn't hurt to have some idea what we might be up against. I peeked outside the open doors, but all I saw was another corridor identical to all the others we had seen, with intersections at either end of the span that passed the lift.

"Not sure, but I think this is where they have the mutagenics labs and Krang's bio-tech experiments. Some really weird and creepy stuff goes on here, if ya' ask me." Mikey answered, suppressing a shudder. "This is where they made those two morons even dumber than they were to begin with. And Slash- now that's ONE turtle who's got some SERIOUS issues. He even makes Raphie seem like a teddy bear!"

"Slash?" I inquired, surprised by his comment. "You mean there's another one of you?"

"Uh, not exactly- he's a turtle, but not like us. He's bigger- and a LOT dumber. Don thinks it's because he was Bebop's pet before those goons mutated him so they'd have someone to order around. It kind of backfired- no surprise there. His mutation got messed up or somethin'. Besides, we think he's a diamondback, not a slider. But I guess he's the closest thing to us there is. It's too bad he's a psycho dim-wit." He shrugged, and cautiously stepped out into the wide passage. "I think this level has the weapons lab, too. It wouldn't hurt to check there for our stuff. I don't care much about the rest of it, but we GOTTA' get those T-coms! And I still want my 'chucks back. It just doesn't feel right without 'em."

"But he said Bebop had them. Shouldn't we be looking for him instead?" I asked, confused.

"Not if he's up there with Krang. We'll have to get him alone. And if Krang's up there, Tin-face probably is, too. No WAY are we tanglin' with both of those creeps. Bebop probably already stashed it all, anyway. That's the closest place I can think of it'd be." He waved for me to follow, and since I wasn't about to go wandering around inside the massive installation on my own, I stepped out behind him, staying close by keeping one hand on the rim of his shell. He turned to the left, slinking like a shadow through the dimly-lit passage. I wondered why there were so few lights, and whispered the question as he paused near the first of several wide double-doors along the way.

"Must be keepin' most of 'em off to save power. This place has been low on power ever since the last time we were here- Leo trashed the main engines, and Donnie blew up the reactor core. Raph and I were busy keepin' everybody occupied so they could get it done." His voice was low and tense; I wondered if something had happened during that raid to cause such a reaction, since he sounded reluctant to say more. That in itself was unusual. Normally, he would have been chattering way eagerly, happy to describe every detail of their latest escapade.

"You okay? Did something go wrong during that fight?" I asked, sensing that there was far more to the incident than he was letting on.

"That's when we almost lost Leo. Shredder found him and they got into it on the catwalk above the storage cells. Leo got stabbed pretty bad. That's how he got that big scar and lost that chunk of his shell. And when I got there and tried to jump in and help him, I got my legs broken. Donnie saved the day. The core blew, and Shredder got knocked over the side and almost fell into the cells. Too bad he didn't- it would have saved us a lot of headaches." He said nothing more; clearly the memory was still painful for him.

I thought over what he'd revealed, and it soon became clear that even being in a place with so many disturbing memories had brought those recollections back in force, and he was coping with that as well as the current situation in the only way he could- by turning the pain into anger. How he had managed to keep functioning in spite of the emotional strain was proof of a strength of will and heart that gave me a new respect for him after everything he had been through in his life thus far. And the true wonder of it was that he was not yet even out of adolescence; I had to wonder what a few more years of maturity and experience would bring. I hoped I'd have a chance to find out.

That thought brought back the earlier conversation I'd had with April, and what it had meant to me. As much as I'd tried to ignore it, the same feeling of familiarity and simple companionship seemed to grow every time he was near. I thought of how he had tried to comfort me in the cell, and the easy way he could always make me smile even when I was feeling down or afraid. It was as if he had some special gift for knowing just how to lift up those around him to give them hope and joy. Raphael might have been the one with the muscles, but I knew in that moment that Mikey was the true source of the brothers' strength. Without that sense of optimism and love of life, they might have all succumbed to despair long ago.

We crept on, pausing at every doorway as he pressed the buttons to open each one in turn to look inside. After the third one, we found ourselves looking into a large room full of computer banks, monitors, and some sort of examination area that reminded me of something out of a mad-scientist's wet dream. There were blades and saws attached to long mechanical arms, electrodes with little suction cups on the ends for reading gods only knew what, and various instruments that I didn't even want to consider the uses of. Beyond all that, however, was something even more horrific- if that was even possible.

The far wall of the room was made of some thick transparent material like glass, and behind it was the most bizarre collection of creatures I'd ever imagined. There was some sort of humanoid feline chained to one wall inside the sectioned off area, with a leonine head and feet, but with a thickly armored torso and the tail and pincers of an enormous scorpion. Not far from it was chained a creature I could only describe as an attempt to combine a gorilla and a goat, with an apelike head and body, but the horns and legs of a goat. And sitting in one corner staring listlessly at the wall was a creature that had obviously once been a human woman by the shape of its figure, but now sported the body of a snake from the waist down, and with elongated jaws complete with fangs, and scales instead of hair or skin. And those were some of the more recognizable ones. There were others far more grotesque.

"My God- what IS this?!" I asked softly, as we stared into the darkened room. A single light illuminated the area; we both stepped slowly into the room, and I glanced toward my partner. I saw a look of pure outrage and disgust on his face. He'd gone pale, a shade of green like soft jade, his fists clutching the twin tanto hilts tightly.

"Those- those MONSTERS!" He spat, teeth bared, the veins in his neck and arms standing out as he trembled with rage. I realized almost at once that he wasn't talking about the creatures imprisoned behind the wall. "Is there NOTHING they won't stoop to?! How can they be so- so cruel?!" He moved forward as if in a trance, until he was close enough to touch the wall, and stared for a long time at the abominations within. An enormous brute that looked part man, part bull, and part ram continually shook its huge, horned head back and forth, lowing pitifully as it pawed the floor and butted against the wall. There was a bloody spot on its forehead, and a matching spot on the wall from the repeated impacts. Another beast with a rat's face and claws, and a dog-like body, snapped and bit at its own tail as it whined and turned in circles as if confused. All of the creatures appeared lost and afraid, confused, mindless, or simply insane.

One of them turned to look our direction, and we both made an involuntary jump back as it slammed into the wall between us. It was a humanoid female, with a feline appearance, save for a pair of large feathery wings and legs that resembled a large predatory bird. It clawed frantically at the barrier, a wild, desperate look in its eyes, before sliding down to huddle on the floor shaking. She looked up at us again, and managed to point to one of the large computer stations; she made a clear sign of begging for mercy. This one, at least, still had some intelligence and sanity left, it seemed.

Michelangelo sank down to the floor in front of her, one hand out against the barrier. The winged lioness-girl held up a clawed hand against his, and I couldn't help feeling pity for the poor thing. No doubt she had been taken captive just as I had, and turned into this strange monstrosity against her will. I shuddered, wondering if this was what our nemesis had been planning to do to me.

"We have to help them," I said softly, knowing that we couldn't in good conscience leave them like this.

"How? We can't just let them out- most of these poor things are totally nuts. They'd go berserk! And I don't know anything about reversing mutations. That's Don's department, and he's not here." Mike shook his head sadly, giving the mutant before him a sympathetic look. "There's nothin' we can do for 'em."

"There has to be SOMETHING!" I protested, unwilling to accept that we should just leave them there. "These things were innocent people once," I said, reminding him of what we were really seeing. "Or at least some of them were." I eyed an odd cross of what appeared to be a rooster and monitor lizard, and another that was a disturbing mix of human and jackal. An odd thought tickled the edges of my mind, that many of the beasts seemed strangely familiar, but I shook it aside. I had yet to figure out what the strange mutant that resembled a boar-headed horse was all about, but it was certainly disturbing.

The winged lion-mutant scratched at the wall again, and pointed once more at the row of softly humming machines. Mikey glanced back where she had indicated, brows furrowed in concern. He turned back to her, pointing at the computers, and she nodded desperately, as one of the other mutants- a half-tiger, half-ram that growled menacingly as it swatted at nothing- lunged against its chain, only to cower and bleat pathetically as it was jerked backward. He turned to watch it for a moment, sighing sadly.

"Maybe we CAN do something," he said, rising slowly to hobble over to the nearest machine. He looked over the buttons and screens, clearly searching for something useful, before he moved to the next one. I moved to join him, wondering what he was doing.

"Mike? What are you looking for?" I asked, worried. He remained silent for several seconds, before he finally answered.

"Here it is- environmental control. This should do it." He said, in a tone that was almost devoid of emotion. He pulled up the commands, and began scrolling though them as though seeking something in particular. I gasped when he clicked on the atmospheric controls, putting in the command to replace the oxygen in the enclosure with carbon monoxide. There was a distinctive click and hiss from inside the prison, and the feline girl looked up at the vents, sniffing the air cautiously.

"What have you done?! That will KILL them!" I asked, reaching for the controls to stop it. He grabbed my hand and shook his head with a look of determination and concern that made me pause.

"I know. And that's all we CAN do. They don't deserve to suffer like that. Better to put them out of their misery humanely. At least they won't feel any pain. They'll just fall asleep and that's it. I think that was what sphinx-girl there was tryin' to tell us. She knew. Look at her." He stared at the pitiful creatures, and I thought I saw a tear slide down his cheek, but he took a deep breath and turned away, one fist landing heavily on the edge of the monitor bank.

I turned to glance toward the winged mutant female, and she gazed back at us, tears in her eyes as she nodded sadly, a half-smile of what might have been gratitude on her feline face. I watched in silence as all of the creatures slowly seemed to stop whatever they had been doing, blinking and looking around groggily. One by one, they began to sink down onto the floor, some gasping or breathing heavily, until they simply slipped down and toppled over, eyes rolling back in their heads, or simply collapsed and curled up as if to sleep. The lion-girl with the wings was one of the last to succumb, along with the huge goat-bull man. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she touched the barrier one final time as if in a gesture of understanding. Then it slid down the cold surface, and the mutants ceased moving.

I stared into the room full of now deceased mutants until long after the last one had breathed its last, wishing there had been some other way to help them. But deep down, I knew he had been right. Setting them free would have been a mistake, perhaps a fatal one. Too many of them had been utterly insane from their torment, and others too wild and animalistic to understand what had happened to them. They would have lashed out at anyone in their path. And with no way to change them back into what they had been before, the only option was to end their suffering with as little pain as possible. He had done them a kindness; it might be the only kindness they had ever known in this place. And hard as it was, I knew in my hear that he had done the only thing he could- and it was tearing him apart inside.

"Come on. Let's go. We still have to finish what we came for and get home." His voice was cracking, and I could hear the slight waver in it, as he fought to keep back the tears. He felt their deaths more keenly than I ever could, simply because he knew what it was like to feel like a monster. In a way, perhaps he had been trying to kill that part of himself, as well. I watched him head for the door, without another look back, and wondered how he had been able to do what he did. To kill innocent creatures knowingly, even knowing that some of them were sentient.

Splinter had taught them that killing was wrong, and a last resort in any situation. So where did that leave him now? I thought back to his earlier words about not being a murderer, and the irony of how swiftly that had changed left a cold, hollow feeling deep inside. For good or ill, he had killed innocent beings, and I wondered at the mark that would leave on his soul.


End file.
